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COATRIBUTIOi^S 
/aMERICfl/^ PROGRESS 





THIS BOOKLET HAS BEEN PREPARED 
AND ISSUED 

under the authority of the 

Committee Representing Americans of Swedish 
Lineage 



AMERICA'S MAKING EXPOSITION 

71st Regiment Armory 

October 29th— November 12th, 1921 



SWEDISH CONTRIBUTIONS 

TO 

AMERICAN NATIONAL LIFE 

1638-1921 



BY 

AMANDUS JOHNSON, Ph.D. 

Author of " The Swedes in America," etc. 



To know the struggle arid achievement of your fathers 
is to love your cou?itry 



PUBLISHED BY THE 

COMMITTEEIOF THE SWEDISH SECTION OF 
AMERICA'S MAKING, Inc. 

NEW YORK 

OCTOBER, 1921 






Copyrighted October 29th, 192 1, 

BY THE 

Committee of the Swedish Section of 
America's Making 



©CI.A630-78 



NOV 14 192/ 



♦vvo 



PREFACE. 

The following sketch has been written under unusual dif- 
ficulties. The large collections, notes, clippings and other sources 
of the author were destroyed, as the booklet was under prepara- 
tion, and only through the encouragement and aid of friends has 
it been possible to publish even this inadequate account of 
Three Centuries of Swedish Contributions to iVmerican Na- 
tional Life. 

The writer wishes especially to thank Dr. Moving, Mr. 
Skarstedt, Mr. Berger, Dr. Freeburg and the other members 
of the Book Commtitee, Mr. Bjornstroni-Steffanson and particu- 
larly Professor Stomberg, of the University of Minnesota; Mr. 
Swendsen, of Minneapolis, as well as many others too numerous to 
mention. 

The Committee and the author wish to express their sincere 
thanks to the American Scandinavian Foundation for the loan of the 
cuts of the portraits of Washington and Hesselius; to Prof. David 
Nyvall for the loan of the cut of North Park College ; to Augustana 
Book Concern, Rock Island, 111., for the loan of the other cuts ; and 
especially to Mrs. Ingeborg Hansell, of New York, who has designed 
the cover. 

Those who are interested in the history of Swedish achieve- 
ments in America will find more detailed information in the 
author's "_Swedes in America," Volume I. This work will be 
complete in four volumes. 

THE AUTHOR. 

Philadelphia, October, 1921. 




Portrait of Washington, Painted by WertmiiUer. See page 42. 



INTRODUCTION 



History and Colonization — Characteristics of the 

Swedes 



HISTORY AND COLONIZATION. 

An account of the background of events is generally desir- 
able. If of sufficient detail and scope it will give us a clearer 
view of the subject in question and make it easier to understand 
certain peculiar traits of the actors in new or unfamiliar environ- 
ment and their reaction to new stimuli. It will often explain the 
rise and origin of movements and indicate the source of influ- 
ences and the forces behind them. 

With this in view the reader may perhaps find an interest 
in the following brief sketch of Swedish history and Swedish- 
American colonization from the earliest time to the present 
day. 

Scholars have located the original home of the Germanic 
peoples in southern Sweden, where Ayrian clans from the East, 
according to these views, settled perhaps ten thousand years 
before our era. From there various tribes spread over Europe, 
gradually developing into the great nations of today. This may 
be fancy (although as probable as any other theories on the 
subject), but it is certain that the ancestors of the present popu- 
lation of Sweden occupied the southern portion of what is now 
the Scandinavian Peninsula a very long period before the Chris- 
tian era. 

Due to their isolated position and relative seclusion they 
retained, during the following ages, their purity of race to a 
greater extent than any other Germanic people, and maintained 
to a higher degree than other nations the special characteristics 
of what Grant calls "the Great Race." Through these qualities 
the people rose above material disadvantages and achieved 
results relatively far beyond their means. They developed a 
high civilization before the days of Moses, and at the time of 
Caesar they possessed a culture superior to any on the con- 
tinent, outside of Greece and Rome. 

In the early centuries of our era they produced a literature 
of large and varied proportions, which unfortunately has been 
lost. They stood in the front rank of material development. 
They possessed navigators and warriors who had few equals and 
no superiors in the known world. 

The victory of the Vikings in virtually every battle and the 



success of their expeditions in general (often misunderstood and 
misinterpreted) were not primarily due to the strength, personal 
prowess or ferocity of the Northmen, but rather to their higher 
culture, their more scientific methods of warfare and superior 
organization as compared to their enemies. 

The forefathers of the modern Swedes had their full share 
in the stirring history of the Viking period. They took part 
in most of the important expeditions of the Northmen to the 
west. They supplied many Norse colonists in Normandy and 
the British Isles and the largest expedition to America (1003) 
was led by a chieftain of Swedish descent, Thorfin Karlsefni. 
But the Viking inhabitants of what is now Sweden, mainly 
directed their efforts eastward, and early proved their success, 
not only as warriors, but also as colonists and settlers. 

They founded Russia and established themselves in many 
places of this vast territory. They conquered and Christianized 
Finland and colonized the coastal districts from Tornea to 
Bjorko. They dotted the Baltic Provinces with their settle- 
ments, and established trade, commercial and other relations 
with the various tribes. 

In the later Middle Ages Sweden fell behind other parts 
of Europe, more favored by nature. The tremendous energies 
exerted in many directions in the previous centuries, continued 
wars and frequent and destructive pestilences, dulled the spirit 
of the people. The nation was tired ; it needed a rest. For 
certain brief periods the country was united with the other two 
Scandinavian nations, often to its detriment, and foreigners ob- 
tained a firm foothold there. At the time of the Reformation, 
trade, commerce and industrial arts were almost entirely in the 
hands of Germans or Hollanders. 

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, however, great 
leaders arose who, in less than three generations, placed the 
nation among the first-class powers of Europe, raised the stand- 
ard of living, extended the boundaries of the country, improved 
the system of the government, making it a model for the rest 
of Europe, reformed education and founded universities and 
preparatory schools, established cities, extended trade and fost- 
ered commerce. Gustavus Adolphus, Queen Christina, Axel 
Oxenstierna, Klas Fleming, Charles XII and dozens of others 
are names that grow dim by no comparison and, by virtue of 
their colonial interests, are bound up closely with the history 
of America. 

It was particularly the beginning of the seventeenth century, 
that witnessed the ascendency of Sweden. The Thirty Years' 
War made her the leading power of northern Europe, and 
brought her in touch with world forces to a larger extent than 
ever before since the Viking period. The result was an awaken- 
ing along many lines and a quickening of the national life. The 
feeling of nationality grew strong (nationalism and chauvinism 



are not, as many scholars maintain, an eighteenth century prod- 
uct) and there was a veritable propaganda for national great- 
ness. Swedish warriors had placed the country "on the map" 
politically, Swedish armies had marched over half of Europe, 
humbled several nations and pressed the course of history into 
new channels. With this in view Swedish statesmen and other 
leaders tried to give the nation a "place in the sun" of commer- 
cial, industrial and colonial success. Spain, Portugal, England 
and Holland had large colonial possessions, great commercial 
fleets and extensive industrial establishments. On a hundred 
battlefields Swedish soldiers had found no superiors, why should 
not Swedish genius, applied to peaceful pursuits, acquire equal 
success in competition with other nations? Why should not 
Sweden have a share in the colonial empires across the sea, 
where, according to reports, fabulous fortunes were slumbering, 
ready to be won by the strong and the enterprising? Thus 
argued the educated Swede of the seventeenth century. 

The argument was correct, but Swedish resources in wealth 
and man power were hardly equal to such a task. The gigantic 
wars required unbelievable sacrifice and called for nearly the 
last ounce of the nation's strength. 

It was, however, in the very midst of these wars that Swed- 
its colonies were planted in America and Africa, and that the 
nation took a long leap forward in material development, but 
the above facts explain why the colonial ventures lacked the es- 
sential elements of success. 

Many foreigners who were seeking preferment and better 
opportunities for the exercise of their power, offered their serv- 
ices to the progressive nation of the north, whose King and Chan- 
cellor were eager to giake use of talents wherever they could 
be found. Holland especially, which by virtue of a long develop- 
ment had a surplus of trained men in many fields, furnished 
Sweden with some of her best leaders. Thus availing themselves 
of foreign experts, as well as training native powers with the 
utmost intensity, the King and his assistants executed extensive 
plans and accomplished far-reaching reforms in many fields. 

As a result Swedish shipping began to compete for the trade 
of the Baltic. Weaving mills, ropewalks, glass works and other 
factories were.established. Native talent was available in abund- 
ance which simply needed training, as the Swede has always been 
mechanically inclined. From times immemorial he made his im- 
plements for farming and other purposes, as well as household 
goods. He built his house and constructed his primitive mills; 
while every house-wife could spin her yarns, weave her cloth 
and sew her clothes. 

The spiritual and cultural forces were not neglected by the 
great leaders of the seventeenth century, and the blessings of 
civilization were also given to the inhabitants of conquered ter- 
ritory, for the Swedish chariot of war did not primarily leave 



desolate cities and waste country in its wake. In its track 
sprouted commerce and trade, schools and universities arose, ^ 
orderly government was established and happy and contented 
citizens were left to enjoy the blessings of a higher culture. 

Education and Christianity were always the first thoughts 
of the Swedish statesmen and warriors. When they conquered 
Finland they did not exterminate the race or compel them to 
adopt a new language, but they translated the Bible into their 
tongue and thus taught them the truths of Christianity in the 
Speech they understood and appreciated. When governors were 
sent to America and Africa they were strictly enjoined to treat 
the aborigines kindly, and large fines were imposed for any in- 
jury done to the natives, while the instructions were minute 
about their conversion to Christianity. 

Much was done for the education of the masses and the 
school system of the country was greatly improved. Commenius 
(Komminsky), far ahead of his contemporaries as an educator, 
was called to Sweden for the purpose of reorganizing the school 
system according to his educational theories, and, at the expense 
of the government, he wrote a series of pedagogical works. The 
result was the school ordinance of 1648 "with a system of in- 
structions equal to which no other country could show a parallel, 
whether we refer to the completeness and thoroughness of the 
formal and pedagogical principles or the extent or content of the 
material studied." 

Improvements were made from time to time and in 1693 
compulsory education became a law, long before similar meas- 
ures were adopted in other countries. As a consequence of suc]^ 
efforts, the illiteracy of the population was greatly reduced, and 
the Swedes who came to America during the colonial period and 
later showed a smaller percentage of illiteracy than any other 
nation. 

* * * 

The first impulse for Swedish Trans-Atlantic trade, com- 
merce and colonization came from Holland. When English set- 
tlements were being made in New England and Virginia and 
when the Dutch were establishing themselves in New Amster- 
dam, William Usselinx drew up extensive plans for a Swedish 
company which was to conduct trade and found colonies in 
America and Africa. These plans miscarried, but the idea was 
realized on a smaller scale, and out of it grew one of the set- 
tlements on the North American coast. 

The first expedition, conceived in 1636, prepared in 1637, ar- 
rived on the American shores in March, 1638, and landed at 
what is now Wilmington, Delaware. The west bank of the 
Delaware as far as present Philadelphia was bought from the 
Indians. Forts and other dwellings were erected and arrange- 

^ The universities of Abo and Dorpat, etc. 



l3C £•' . 



3lfiss. 




M u/Lic FA t, aij y^ rilft CCrAtm. -J. 




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Fort Christina on the Delaware, New Sweden (Present Wilmington, Delaware). 



ments made for the tilling of the soil and establishing trade witb 
the aborigines. Eleven other expeditions followed at certain in- 
tervals. More land was bought from the Indians, and the set- 
tlement finally extended to four of the original States — Pennsyl- 
vania, Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey. New Sweden on 
the Delaware, as the colony was called, surrendered to the Dutch 
in 1655, after a short and practically bloodless warfare and the 
district was captured by the English nine years later. 

The colony, however, continued to grow in prosperity. New 
farms were cleared, new mills for grinding corn were erected, new 
brick-yards were established and new roads were laid out. Im- 
migrants arrived from Sweden from time to time. New settlers 
came from other parts of Europe and from the neighboring col- 
onies on the coast. The banks of the Delaware and the Schuyl- 
kill for some distance were thus settled and the country was by 
no means a wilderness when William Penn arrived in 1G8;^. 

The Swedes dominated the situation for some time, but 
they gradually lost their ascendency, through the influx of set- 
tlers from Great Britain and elsewhere. They retained their 
characteristics for many generations and left a decided imprint 
on the three States where they were located. 

This was, to a large extent, due to the interest of the mother 
country. The Swedish government maintained pastors among 
its colonies and houses of worship were built at the expense of 
the public treasury. When New Sweden passed on to the Dutch 
only one pastor remained who, according to the articles of sur- 
render, was allowed to instruct the Swedes freely in their relig- 
ion and language. For several years the colony was entirely 
left to itself, but the Swedes here were deeply religious and when 
their only pastor became old and unfit for service the colonists 
entreated the government at Stockholm to supply them with 
"ministers of the gospel, so that their children would not grow 
up to be heathens." This was in 1693. 

Charles XI, "a good and wise monarch" who "was religious 
to excess," occupied the throne, and he issued orders that the 
requests of the Swedes in America should be granted. Accord- 
ingly three ministers of the Gospel were dispatched with Bibles 
and books. They arrived here in May, 1697, after a long and 
perilous journey, and at once began collecting "the scattered 
flocks." Two churches were erected soon after — one at Wilming- 
ton in 1699 and one in Philadelphia in 1700. These interesting 
little churches are still standing, as monuments to the piety 
and religious fervor of the early Swedes. 

* * * 

Literature, science and general culture were ardently fost- 
ered during the eighteenth century and in this period we find 
some of the most famous names in Swedish history, Linne, Swed- 
enborg. Fries, Scheele are but a few. The intense scientific ac- 



tivity reacted on America. The Swedish pastors that came to 
Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania were nearly all "vo- 
taries of botany, or other forms of learning," and greatly stimu- 
lated interest in science and education during their stay in 
America. But conditions in the mother country were unfavor- 
able for emigration and the churches on the Delaware were 
adversely affected. Almost incessant wars, some of them disas- 
trous, misrule and internal strife, made the nation helpless. 
Nevertheless the authorities at Stockholm did not forget the lit- 
tle colony in America. Even Charles XII, during his exile in 
Turkey, issued orders about "the Swedish-Lutheran Mission on 
the Delaware." The government, although at all times pressed 
for funds, not only supplied relatively large sums of money to 
the missionaries, but also sent psalm-books. Bibles and other 
religious literature to the churches in Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey. 

Forty-one pastors were sent to America between 1612 and 
1779, many of whom were among the most learned and able 
preachers in the country — men like Rev. Dylander, Dr. Wrangel, 
Dr. Collin and others. In their wake followed, not only a 
certain number of immigrants who sought their fortunes here, 
settled in the country and became "good citizens," but also 
travellers, artists and scientists, such as Johan Printz, Peter 
Kalm, Gustav Hesselius, Ulric Wertmiiller, Ulric Dahlgren, 
etc. 

Thus there has been almost an uninterrupted migration to 
these shores from Sweden from the year 1638 to the present day. 
In fact, after the Revolution, there was a considerable influx of 
immigrants, to such an extent that it was necessary for Rev. 
Collin about 1820 to warn his countrymen from coming here, 
"as there were too many Swedes in the land already." 



The nineteenth century was a period of great changes in 
Sweden as elsewhere. Liberal thought gradually permeated 
every walk of life. Many reforms were set in motion and educa- 
tion was made even more general than ever before, placing 
Sweden in the front rank of civilized nations and reducing the 
illiteracy of her population to less than one-hundredth of one 
per cent., the lowest in the world. 

Migration to America during the first forty years of the cen- 
tury was small. So long a journey presented innumerable difficul- 
ties. Transportation was troublesome and expensive and the trip 
took weeks and often months. The poor classes, who were willing 
to migrate had no money to do so and people of means had no am- 
bition to leave their homes for uncertain fortunes in a new world. 
Besides it was not always possible to quit the country, as a 
special permit was required from the King. This restriction was 
removed in 1843 and other circumstances tended to set in mo- 



tion "that procession of fortune-seekers from Sweden" which has 
increased our population by nearly two millions and made in- 
valuable contributions to our national life, by clearing the mighty 
forests of the western States and transforming the wide prairies 
to fertile fields, by building 2000 churches and almost as many 
school houses, by establishing nearly twenty higher institutions 
of learning, and a large number of charitable organizations, by 
forming over one thousand societies for public welfare and mu- 
tual benefit, by publishing hundreds of newspapers and thou- 
sands of books, in fine by enriching our spiritual life in a hun- 
dred different ways. These, and the earlier contributions of the 
colonial Swedes, will form the subject for the following pages, 
but before we proceed it will perhaps be profitable to examine 
the characteristics of the people, which have played so eminent 
a part in the upbuilding of the nation. 

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SWEDES. 

The Swede is an individualist and has an intensely developed 
sense of personal rights. Hence his feeling of individual owner- 
ship is strong. He has a high respect for property rights and an 
innate feeling of the difference between "mine and thine." The 
result is a proverbial honesty which is always mentioned as his 
distinctive attribute. 

At bottom he is an idealist, and the most noteworthy at- 
tempts at realism in Swedish literature are tinged with a certain 
idealism, a part of the nature of every Swedish poet, which can 
never be fully repressed. 

The Swede is often as serious-minded as the Finn, although 
he seldom becomes morose. He is generally of an even tempera- 
ment and fatalistic disposition. 

Religion, based on deep conviction, is an inborn characteris- 
tic, and often gives a key to his career. About the first thing a 
company of Swedes will do, after they have provided shelter for 
themselves, is to erect a place of worship, whether their home be 
in the city or on the plains or in the deep forests. 

Another trait in the Swede is his vitality and ability to work. 
His longevity, according to statistics, is ten per cent, higher 
than that of any other nationality in Europe. Thus his endur- 
ance is great and he possesses those qualities in a special de- 
gree that go to make the successful pioneer. 

Work is a necessary prerogative to his happiness. "He revels 
in his labors and is proud of his job." Every detail is of interest 
to him, and here lies the secret of his success in the various 
trades. "To make money" generally is not his main desire, nor 
is mere wealth his ultimate aim. To establish a business of 
which he can be proud and to live in a home which gives him 
delight and comfort is worth more to him than a bank account 
or a large fortune. 

13 



He is more industrious than the majority, but not always 
■saving. You never find him in the slum districts of our cities, 
and seldom do you encounter him in charitable homes. The 
Swedes congregate in colonies, like most other nationalities, but 
they are less clannish than some. 

As a race they are mechanically inclined. It is as easy and 
natural for them to be good mechanics and handy with tools, as 
it -is for the Russians to be good dancers. Modern conditions 
have somewhat tended to stunt the growth of this talent — fac- 
tory-made objects have displaced han(;l-wrought articles — but it 
has taken expression in sloyd or manual training. 

They have special aptitude for natural sciences, and as a race, 
have, perhaps, furnished more than their share of prominent scien- 
tists in many fields. 

Love of music is their most pronounced artistic trait. A large 
number of Swedes are skilful carvers in wood, an ancient and 
once common art; some are great painters, and a few are promi- 
nent sculptors, but the whole nation can sing and is fond of music. 
It is the one art that the most puritanical will not banish. While 
some denominations have rejected every vestige of painting and 
sculpture, song and music have been cultivated ardently. 

Another pronounced characteristic of the Swede is his adap- 
tability to new surroundings and ready accommodation to new 
and strange conditions. After a few years in a foreign country 
he acquires its language and feels himself part of the community. 
His inborn loyalty to his immediate surroundings and close 
associations and his strong love of home quickly develop into a 
deep loyalty to his adopted country, where he enjoys his com- 
forts and privileges. Sweden becomes a beautiful dream, a series 
of sweet childish recollections, but always dominated by the 
more real and present fact of the everyday reality of his new 
life. He may long to visit "the little red cottage" where his 
youth passed in "tranquil innocence," but he is never satisfied 
there, and he will generally return to the "home of his choice." 
His interests are here, his home henceforth in America, the land 
where his children will live and die. He feels he is one with the 
country which he has helped in a small measure to make. There 
are no more patriotic and loyal citizens within the confines of the 
forty-eight States than the citizens of Swedish descent. 



14 



CONTRIBUTIONS 



GENERAL CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE EARLY PERIOD. 

It IS rather difficult to appraise accurately the share of the 
colonial Swedes and their descendents in the progress and 
growth of America. If Bancroft's estimate is correct about six 
per cent, of the population in the United States are descendants 
ot the early Swedes on the Delaware. In material development 
these colonists possibly did not contribute more than their pro- 
portionate quota, but in culture and religious matters, they ac- 
complished results far beyond their numbers. 

They laid the basis for the civilization and religious struc- 
ture of three of the original states (Delaware, New Jersey and 
i^ennsylvania), and made early settlements in a fourth (Mary- 
land). In this region they built the first flour mills, constructed 
the first saw mills, built the first ships on the Delaware (today 
f"u 2 .u ^^ °''^"'°^* shipbuilding centres of the world), estab- 
lished the first brick yards, laid out the first cities, made the first 
roads, introduced horticulture and scientific forestry two cen^ 
tunes before these ideas became general in the nation They 
erected the first temples of worship, they established the first 
schools, translated Luther's catechism into the Indian language 
for the first time, and were the first to begin missionary work 
among the Lenapes They built the first organs south of Bos- 
ton, drew the first detailed maps of the country, wrote the first 
geography of the middle eastern States. They made the first 
astronomical and weather observations; they wrote the first 
phi ologicaj treaties of the Lenape dialect, and they made the 
first botanical study of the region. They established the first 
aw courts and the first trials by jury. They laid the foundation 
tor a fair and humane treatment of the Indians,^ and saved Penn, 
sylvania. New Jersey and Delaware from the bloody history of 
New England, New Amsterdam and Virginia. They were the 
first to oppose slavery (even before the Germans), they fur- 
nished the first revivalist in the history of America, and they pro- 
duced the first American painter of note. Three prominent 
American poets trace their ancestors to the Delaware Swedes; 

tl f";ri? S' °^ '^' ^'^'^'" Stocking Tales was a descend- 
ant of the New Sweden settlers, and from their ranks have come 
some of the greatest scholars and scientists of America. Some 
ot the details will appear in the following sections.^ 

' See below, page 17 ff. 

IS 



AGRICULTURE. 

Among the foremost achievements of the Swedes in Amer- 
ica are the vast number of farms which they have brought under 
cultivation, and the dairies and other agricultural establishments 
which they have spread over the nation. 

In the colonial period they were principally farmers, and be- 
fore 1700 they had dotted the shores of the Delaware from its 
mouth almost as far up as Trenton for Several miles inland with 
their farms and plantations, and they had spread to Maryland and 
even to Virginia. 

The first thirty years of the migrations of the nineteenth cen- 
tury brought an overwhelming majority of farmers and settlers 
who by choice or necessity selected lands in the west and else- 
where for their homes. Land was plentiful and could be obtained 
from the government for almost nothing, and from the railway 
companies for a trifle. It was thus possible to become a farmer 
without any other capital than a power and will to work. These 
qualities the Swedes possessed in an eminent degree and hence 
became particularly successful pioneer farmers. 

Many of the earlier settlers of other nationalities selected 
homesteads near rivers and lakes that offered easy means of 
communication. Not so the Swedes. They plunged straight 
into the wilderness or wandered into the deep prairies in small 
groups, where they chose the most inaccessible places, built their 
log cabins or dug their earth houses. However, in ten years the 
Swede had transformed the forest into a fertile farm and the 
desolate prairie into a field of waving grain. His earth house had 
grown to a two-story dwelling, and the dingy hut had been re- 
placed by a large, convenient farmhouse. In twenty years he 
lived in a cottage with all modern improvements. His barn had 
become an imposing structure with machinery, windmill, gaso- 
line pumps, separators, grinding devices, wood-cutting apparatus 
and a dozen other special contrivances for every conceivable pur- 
pose, besides his regular farming machinery. This is a picture 
of a typical instance, and is based on a real case. 

Citizens of Swedish extraction have cleared and cultivated in 
all over ten million acres in the United States.* Of foreign 
people only the Germans have surpassed them in the extent, of 
their farms and the magnitude of their agricultural achievements. 

There are large Swedish-American agricultural communities 
in almost every part of the Union, except in a few of the south- 
ern States. In Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, the Dakotas, 
Kansas and Ohio, whole counties are exclusively Swedish and 
some settlements are dozens of miles in extent. If we compare 
the wealth and prosperity of some of these counties with counties 
of other nationalities we shall find that the Swedish farmers are 
among the leaders in wealth and advancement. They are pro- 

* In Minnesota alone they have over 2,000,000 acres under cultivation. 

16 



gressive and quick to adopt new ideas and are always on the 
alert for new machinery and the latest inventions which will aid 
them to keep abreast with the best.^ 

In horticulture, landscape-gardening, fruit raising and nurs- 
ery establishments they have attained remarkable success. In 
Cromwell, Massachusetts, are located what is claimed to be the 
most extensive hot-houses in America. The business was founded 
fifty years ago by a citizen of Swedish birth and is still owned by 
him. It is said that "more roses are produced there for the 
retail market than at any other hot-houses in the country." 

In Chicago is another nursery, founded by S. S. Peterson in 
1856, which has grown to be one of the largest and most impor- 
tant establishments of its kind in the West. This concern has 
supplied Chicago with millions of plants. It has imported hun- 
dreds of thousands of bushes, seeds and plants from Europe, and 
exported equally immense numbers to the Old World. 

Swedish-Americans have also entered the fruit-raising busi- 
ness and demonstrated their versatility and ability to specialize, 
showing a shrewd business sense by succeeding where others 
have failed. 

The victory over rough and rugged nature in the northern 
woods and on the western prairies is a worthy monument to 
the settlers who, in many cases, came here with nothing but two 
strong hands and a will to work. 

There would be a great void in the Northwest today, could 
a million citizens of Swedish descent be removed from this ter- 
ritory ; and, but for them, large tracts would be primeval forests 
and what is now the most fertile fields of this great region would 
still be waste land. 

INVENTIONS. 

It has been asserted that the Swedes, according to their 
numbers, have added more practical inventions to American 
industrial life than any other nationality. Whether this is true 
or not admits of no authoritative opinion, for the simple reason 
that statistics on the subject are unobtainable. That the Swedes 
are of a mechanical turn of mind is an acknowledged fact, and 
their inventive faculties have enriched eveiy nation, where they 
have come as settlers or mere sojourners for awhile. 

In the Colonial days the Swedes added several important 
"mechanical discoveries and improvements" to the United 
States. It is especially noteworthy that Dr. Nils Collin, one of 
the Swedish pastors in Philadelphia, constructed an elaborate 
elevator, exceptionally useful in the case of fire, and received a 
gold medal for some of his other mechanical contrivances. 

The early immigrants of the last century, as we have seen, 

" Electric plants for power and light are common on Swedish- American 
farms in the West. 

17 



were mostly farmers and had little inclination for inventions or 
industrial pursuits, and it was not until a decade after the Civil 
War, with two or three notable exceptions, that men of Swedish 
lineage gained important success in the held of inventions and 
discoveries. 

One of the exceptions among the early pioneers was John 
Ericsson, who stands supreme and rather isolated, lit must 
always be mentioned among those four or five men whose 
genius made modern civilization possible. 

Ericsson's contributions to American progress are too num- 
erous to be mentioned in a chapter of this character, but his 
major inventions and achievements must be sketched briefly. His 
first important addition to the world's material i)rogress, which 
became intimately interwoven with American industrial life and 
of special significance to the nation, was the propeller. This 
invention indeed antedated his coming to America, but the United 
States enjoyed the first fruits of its success. 

No historian worthy of the name has ever maintained that 
Ericsson was the first to hit upon the idea of the propeller — in 
fact, several nations have claimed the honor — but he was the 
first to make it a success. 

Shortly after his arrival in New York Ericsson found an 
opportunity to execute some of his new ideas. In 18-12-43 he 
superintended the building of a sloop of war named "Princeton," 
fitted with his patented propeller and machinery of his own 
design. This ship, famous in American naval history, was re- 
markable in many ways and opened a new chapter in naval 
construction. 

She was the first screw steam vessel of war ever built. 

She was the first war-ship in which all the machinery was 
below the water line. 

She was the first man-of-war to be supplied with fans for 
forcing the furnace fires. 

She was the first battle-ship to carry cannon of modern cali- 
bre, twelve-inch guns. 

Ericsson had invented a gun of this calibre before his com- 
ing to America, but it was first put to the test here and rightly 
belongs to his American achievements. The importance of the 
idea, however, was hardly realized by the naval experts of the 
day. 

The fire-engine is one of his most useful and valuable gifts 
to humanity. His first engine was made in England (1828) and 
became the starting point for the engineers of Europe ; but the 
idea did not cross the ocean before Ericsson's arrival here, and 
in 1840 a new and improved fire apparatus was constructed by 
him, for which he received a gold medal from the American In- 
stitute. 

The "Monitor," however, is the most famous of his creations. 

i8 



Its value to the country is described in another chapter," but it 
may be in place here to present his specific claims to ownership, 
since these have often been disputed. Certain writers with abund- 
ant ardor and zeal, but somewhat deficient in historical knowledge 
and scientific methods and not wholly free from bias, have gone 
to great lengths in their endeavor to rob John Ericsson of his 
rightful honors. 

As in the case of the propeller Ericsson was not the first to 
think of a revolving turret. In fact one or two patents were 
registered years before which contained some of the principles 
of the "Monitor." The best known of these are a plan "for a 
revolving iron battery," submitted by Theodore R. Timby to 
the War Department in 1841, and a patent, filed in 1843, for "a 
metallic revolving fort to be used on land or water, and to be 
revolved by propelling engines located within the same, and 
acting upon suitable machinery." '^ But these contrivances were 
impractical and never reached a workable stage. 

Ericsson was the first to put the propeller and the revolving 
turret into practical use, in the same sense that Marconi made the 
wireless an efficient agent for sending long-distance messages 
and Fulton made the steamboat a public means of conveyance, 
which finally developed into one of the most essential posses- 
sion of the modern world. 

Space does not permit a full presentation of the case, but if 
Marconi is to be credited with the invention of the wireless, 
Fulton with the steamboat, Stevenson with the locomotive and 
Morse with the telegraph, then surely John Ericsson, and for 
similar reasons and in some cases with more propriety, must be 
credited with the invention of the propeller and the "Monitor." 
To do otherwise would be to deny credit and honor to some of 
the greatest benefactors of mankind. 

In the world of progress it is not the air-castles that count, 
however wonderfully conceived, but the solid structures of wood, 
iron and stone. A builder of palaces in the air may be an m- 
teresting member of the community and a worthy object of 
historical discussion, but even the most biased will admit that 
the builder of palaces on the ground is a slightly more useful 
citizen and deserves a somewhat greater recognition. 

John Adolph Dahlgren, the famous admiral of the United 
States Navy, must also be mentioned here. His best known in- 
vention was the gun that bore his name. It was the result of 
elaborate experiments and based on accurate and scientific prin- 
ciples. "The experts" shook their heads and predicted failure, 
but it finally won the day and opened a new era in naval arma- 

* See below, page 57 fif. 

' As early as 1812 Colonel John Stevens proposed heavily armored circu- 
lar vessels which could be revolved at will. Vessels of a somewhat similar 
type were actually built in Russia about 1872, but they proved to be failures. 

19 



ment.® Besides he invented a cannon-rifle and boat-howitzer with 
iron carriages, unsurpassed for combined Hghtness and accuracy. 
Inventions of lesser men are too numerous and too varied to 
be mentioned in the space allotted for this purpose. Among the 
earlier of these contributions perhaps the Nelson knitting ma- 
chine is the most important and useful. Since then there is not 
a field of industry, a branch of science or a section of mechanics 
that has not been enriched by the inventive genius of Swedish- 
Americans. New processes of steel hardening (the most ef- 
ficient armor plate for battleships in the world is said to be made 
in Philadelphia according to a formula of a Swedish-American 
engineer), new methods of mining, improved ways of iron and 
steel manufacturing, new systems of tunneling and a variety of 
other processes, farming machinery of every description, auto- 
matic devices, labor-saving machines of a hundred different 
designs in the carpenter trade, book-binding and other industries; 
hook and eye machinery, wire-bending machinery, baking ma- 
chinery, locks and firearms, shells and explosives, die-cutting" 
devices, metal working machines, generators and dynamos, alter- 
nators, new system of wireless telegraphy and telephony, the 
locomotive, internal combustion engines, automatic weighing 
scales, rotary pumps, the motorcycle, lubricating systems and 
various devices connected with automobiles, signal systems, 
storage batteries, musical instruments and a thousand other 
devices have either been improved, invented or discovered by 
citizens of Swedish lineage in this country. The mere names 
of these inventions, improvements and discoveries would fill 
many large pages, and the benefit they have been to the nation, 
and the part they have played in its industrial development is 
commensurate only with what the Swedish-Americans have ac- 
complished in agriculture, lumbering and other pursuits. ^ 

CONTRACTING, BUILDING, ENGINEERING, BUSINESS, 

BANKING, MANUFACTURING, LUMBERING 

AND MECHANICAL PURSUITS. 

Even in the colonial period there were builders, contractors 
and skilled laborers of Swedish origin, but few of them rose to 
distinction. 

The Swedish immigrants before 1870 were mostly untrained 
and except in isolated cases possessed no desire for business or 
the larger affairs of the country. However, forty years ago, or 
more, citizens of Swedish origin began to invade practically every 
line of business, every branch of industry and commerce and 
every vocation and profession, and they have forged to the front 
in all these fields. 

' For its value to the Union cause in the Civil War, see below, page 53 ff. 
' Statistics and a full account with a bibliography will appear in Swedes in 
America, IV. 



"It is hardly an exaggeration to say that there is not a 
single business community of any importance" in the country 
today, except in the South, where they have "not established 
themselves." The business man of Swedish origin has retained 
much of the conservatism of his ancestors. "He avoids great 
risks and builds on a solid foundation," hence "his achievements 
are seldom spectacular or sensational," and his success is mod- 
erate but sure. He has thus exerted an influence on his com- 
munity for sound and honest business principles and for high 
ideals in trade. 

The Swedish-Americans are also well represented in banking 
and other pursuits connected with business. 

In tailoring likewise they stand very high and their shops 
cater mostly to the finest trade, many of the fashionable tailor- 
ing establishments in the country being owned and operated by 
Swedish-Americans. 

"In proportion to their numbers," says the Report of the 
Immigrant Commission, "the Swedes of the first generation are 
engaged in building trades to a greater extent than . . . any 
other nationality" except two. 

The foremost building contractor in Chicago, 111., is of 
Swedish birth. The Pugh Terminal Warehouse (the largest 
building in the city) and about forty of the public schools there 
have been erected by him. The largest contracting firms in 
Kansas City and several other building centres of the West are 
operated by Swedish-Americans. Many of the largest structures 
in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Seattle, Omaha, Cleveland and other 
cities have been built by architects or contractors of Swedish 
lineag'e. ^° Some of the most extensive water systems in the 
country (Chicago, Seattle, etc.) have been either planned or 
partly planned and constructed by citizens of Swedish extraction. 
Some of the longest and most important bridges of the nation 
have been built by Swedes, and they have constructed dry-docks 
and ship-building plants for the Government and private in- 
dividuals. Portions of western railroads and other large engin- 
eering works have also been constructed by Swedes. 

In manufacturing and mechanical pursuits along many lines 
they occupy an even more important position, and in proportion 
to their numbers employed, in their skill, as evidenced by the 
product they turn out, the confidence placed in them by the 
owners of industrial plants and the positions they occupy, they 
surpass all other nationalities without exception. ^^ The man- 
agers, superintendents, presidents and other executive officers in 
many of our industrial establishments, such as steel mills, auto- 
mobile factories, machine works, etc., are citizens of Swedish 
origin (the manager of the Corbin Screw Corporation, General 

"The steel plant and rolling mill of John A. Roebling's Sons, at Tren- 
ton, N. J., were designed and the erection superintended by a Swede, etc. 

" See report of Im. Covi., 191 1 ; private reports from factories in the New 
England States ; Illinois ; Michigan, etc. 



Manager of the Reed-Prentice Company, the Superintendent of 
the American Glass Factory, the Chief Engineer of the Cadillac 
Motor Car Co., the President of the Compo Board Company, etc.). 

Swedish carpenters are recognized as among the best and 
they generally command the highest wages. They have fur- 
nished about five times their proportionate share of this class of 
skilled labor (/w. Com. Rep., 191 1). 

As joiners and cabinet makers they also occupy a unique 
place in American industry. I believe that it is no exaggeration 
to say that there is not a furniture factory or cabinet plant of 
any consequence in the country in which they are not employed 
as mechanics or foremen. 

In such important furniture centres as Rockford and Grand 
Rapids, they hold a dominant and leading place. Some of the 
largest factories are not only managed but owned by citizens of 
Swedish birth or descent. The same is true in Jamestown, Phil- 
adelphia,^- Minneapolis and many other places (where there are 
such establishments turning out doors, sash, office partitions, 
and other mill work and specialties). The output of all 
these plants is not only immense, but the product is in most 
cases of the very best workmanship. Many factories specialize 
in the highest grade of furniture ; copies of antiques, period 
designs, etc. 

In lumber manufacturing and the lumber business generally 
they have been leaders and innovators (the first band gang saw 
constructed in the United States was in one of the C. A. Smith 
Mills ; the manufacture of by-products on a large scale, thus in- 
creasing the productivity and profit of the plants, was first be- 
gun by Swedes ; the first private employment of trained foresters 
and the establishment of nurseries, for the purpose of making 
lumbering perpetual in adaptable territories, were inaugurated by 
Swedes, etc.) 

The C. A. Smith lumber interests, which the American Lum- 
berman for November 11, 191 1, calls "the world's most advanced 
example of a lumber manufacturing and distributing organiza- 
tion," was founded and has been headed since its origin by C. A. 
Smith (born in Sweden in 1853). This vast corporation, which 
owns and controls enough logs and lumber "to build houses for 
a nation," and whose weekly output runs into millions of feet, 
is probably the largest lumber and timber concern not only in 
the United States but anywhere. 

Several other important plants '^ are and have been owned 
and operated by Swedes in the lumber centres of America.^'* 

'^In Philadelphia there are three important factories operated and owned 
by Swedes from the Aland Islands. 

" The Western Lumber Manufacturing Company, Mansfield, Oregon, to 
mention one of the many, is specializing in veneer, and separators for stor- 
age batteries. 

"The late Lewis Sands, of Michigan, was in his day one of the fore- 
most lumbermen of the West. 

22 



The Swedish-Americans are also numerous as skilled and 
unskilled laborers and foremen in the saw mills, as well as lum- 
bermen and raftsmen in the logging operations, supplying a lit- 
tle more than twice their proportionate share. 

RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 

The religious activities of the Swedish-Americans conform to 
one of their most characteristic traits. There are, of course, irre- 
ligious Swedes, and Swedes indifferent to all forms of organized 
creeds, but the majority are deeply religious, although not al- 
ways affiliated with any particular denomination. "Whether 
church members or not, parents send their children to the Sun- 
day schools, convinced that the church is one of the bulwarks of 
citizenship and an indispensable pillar of society." 




-" -fc<ii A, 



:a::^ 



Typical Swedish Lutheran Church. 

In Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey there are six 
Swedish churches from the Colonial period that bear eloquent 
testimony to the religious instinct of the early Swedish settlers, 
and no other immigrant group in the nation can show a richer or 
more varied religious life in all its forms than the Swedish- 
Americans. 



23 



Ever since 1843, when the first services were held among 
the Swedes in the far West, churches have grown apace with 
the settlements, and congregations have sprung up, wherever a 
score or more of Swedes congregated in a community. 

Of Swedish religious organizations the Luthern Church has, 



T. N. Hasselquist, Founder of Augustana Synod. 

by far, the oldest history and has had a continuous existence in 
this country since 1638. Dr. Nils Collin indeed died in 1832 
severing the last direct link .with the consistory at Upsala and 

24 



the Swedish government, and in 1845 all the original Swedish 
Lutheran churches in America but one affiliated themselves with 
the Episcopal Church. The Christ's congregation at Upper Mer- 
ion, Pennsylvania, has remained independent and is to this 
day nominally a member of the Church of Sweden, and under the 
jurisdiction of the Archbishop at Upsala.^^ These churches have 
always been a source of inspiration to Lutherans of later days and 
are looked upon as Mother churches of Lutheranism in this 
country.. 

At the time when the migration from Sweden began to as- 
sume force Lutheran pastors arrived to take care of the spiritual 
wants of the settlers. The most important of these pioneers 
were L. P. Esbjorn and T. N. Hasselquist.'® Esbjorn was a man 




Orphans' Home, Andover. (Lutheran.) 

of exceptional ability and possibly the most learned theologian in 
America at the time. His knowledge of astronomy, mathe- 
matics, physics, chemistry, medicine and many other subjects 
was astonishing, and he was an unusual linguist. He often 

^ In 1876 Prince Oscar of Sweden visited the church with his staff. 
" They were not the first Lutheran pastors in America of the nineteenth 
century. 



25 



preached in four languages in succession on the same day. He 
was an able organizer and deserves a large chapter in the history 
of American religious life. He has often been called the founder 
of the Augustana Synod, but others are inclined to name his 
co-worker, T. N. Hasselquist, "the real founder and father of the 
Swedish Lutheran church as it exists in America today." 

Hasselquist arrived here in 1852 and at once became the lead- 
ing and dominant character of the Augustana Synod for a gen- 
eration. He was less of a scholar than Esbjorn, but 'possibly 
even a greater organizer, and possessed those qualities in a rare 
degree that were especially useful in the early period of the 
church. 

Other pastors from Sweden followed and when schools had 




Augustana Hospital. (Lutheran.) 

been established here workers were trained in the country who 
could carry on the labors and further extend the limits of the 
church organization, until today it stretches from coast to coast 
and penetrates every community where Swedes have settled. 

The Augustana Synod has been the greatest cultural and re- 
ligious force among the Swedes of the country. It has had an 
immense influence on every branch of their activity and has 
tinged and colored every form of their spiritual and cultural life. 
It has raised their standard of living; it has given them a broader 
outlook on life ; it has imbued them with a nobler spirit and a 
finer conception of citizenship. The effect of its labors reach far 
beyond the limits of its own members, and has reacted on the 
whole body of the Swedish-American population. Its aim, al- 
though mainly religious, has been to preserve the best in the 



26 



Swedish character and infuse it in an ennobled form into our 
American Hfe and thus leave a worthy heritage of Swedish origm 
as a gift to American civilization. Without the Augustana 
Synod, with its twelve hundred churches, its seminary and ten 
colleges, its many charitable institutions and its hundreds of 
parochial schools, the religious and cultural life of the Swedish- 
Americans, as a group, would be meagre indeed. 

The various other denominations have also done a noble 
work, but on a much smaller scale, due, not to less able leaders 




O. G. Hedstrom, One of the Founders of the 
Swedish Methodist Church. 

or less worthy aims, but to conditions over which they have had 
no control. Sweden is Lutheran, and perhaps over 90 per cent., 
of its inhabitants are reared in the Lutheran faith. The citizens- 
of Swedish lineage, therefore naturally drifted into the Augus- 
tana Synod, which to the Swedes of this country "is the daugh- 
ter of the Church of Sweden." 

The Methodists began missionary work among the Swedish- 
Americans of the nineteenth century even before the Lutherans. 
The founder of their organization, Jonas Hedstrom, was a man 



27 



of great gifts, a born organizer and a speaker of irresistible 
force. He was fired with an enthusiasm for his cause, which 
bordered on fanaticism, and he soon succumbed to his labors. 
The church he founded, however, has grown until today it has 
a membership of over 25,000, with about 250 churches and more 
than 200 pastors, "ten charitable establishments and two institu- 
tions of learning." It has produced several men of recognized 
power and leadership, and its influence for good can hardly be 
over-estimated. 

The Swedish Baptists have also done a wonderful work. 
Their first congregation was founded in 1852 by Rev. Gustaf 
Palmquist. Today, after an existence of less than seventy years, 
their church embraces over 350 denominations divided into 
twenty-two conferences, with about 225 pastors, over 33,000 
members, nearly 300 churches, two schools and more than a 
dozen charitable institutions. Among its pastors and leaders are 
some of the ablest and most learned men of Swedish origin in 
America. 

The so-called Mission Covenant and the Free Church are 
rather loosely joined bodies of Christian churches, united by com- 
mon interests. Swedish Presbyterian churches have joined either 
one or the other of these organizations, and hence they have 
hardly had a separate existence. The Free Church has a school 
for training pastors and a number of philanthropic establish- 
ments, but the membership of the organization is not large. 

In the early history of the Mission Covenant many of the 
pastors and most of the laymen disparaged, if not despised, "edu- 
cation and worldly learning," but a new and more liberal spirit 
has gradually gained the ascendency and its organizers and lead- 
ers have finally been able to impress on the people the value of 
higher education. The Covenant has a brilliant history, and can 
point to many proud achievements. It operates a successful 
school at Chicago, (North Park College) with an able teaching 
force, and has established a number of charitable institutions. 

The Swedish Episcopalians began work here before the mid- 
dle of the nineteenth century, and although they have over 25,000 
members, their influence has been small, as the organization has 
not had a separate life of its own, but has been an appendix to the 
English Episcopal Church, and their pastors number less than 
forty. 

Hand in hand with the religious and social work have gone 
the educational endeavors of the Swedish-Americans. Even in 
the Colonial period the Swedes paid much attention to the educa- 
tion of their youth, and established schools in connection with 
their churches. Several school masters were obtained from 
Sweden, among them the brother of the famous Swedenborg, and 
others were trained here. In many instances the pastors them- 
selves were the teachers, when school masters could not be 
found, and some of these churchmen were pedagogues of high 

28 



rank. Perhaps the best school ordinance in the Colonies, during 
the middle of the eighteenth century, was that drawn up for 
the Swedish churches on the Delaware by Carl Magnus Wran- 
gel. Wrangel and Hultgren lal)ored incessantly "for the ad- 
vancement of learning," and many of the charitable schools in 
Pennsylvania were inspired by them and other Swedish pastors. 
They helped to found the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. 
Collin was for a time one of its directors. 




Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas. 

At the middle of the nineteenth century when the Swedes 
began to dot the country with their churches, they formulated 
plans for the establishment of schools and colleges. The basis 
was entirely religious, and ever since then, with two or three 
exceptions, all Swedish-American higher institutions of learning 
have been founded for religious purposes. It was to supply the 
want of pastors that led the pioneers to establish schools and the 
early courses were mainly of a religious nature. Gradually, how- 
ever, full college courses were added, while some strictly relig- 
ious courses were retained. The "mother institution" developed 
into a seminary proper, the Augustana Theological Seminary, 
with a full-fiedged college. 

The character of the student body has greatly changed, since 
the early days. While forty years ago the majority of the stu- 
dents at these institutions were preparing for the ministry, to- 
day only a small proportion of the graduates continue their 
studies at the Seminary. This is particularly true of the col- 
leges connected with the Augustana Synod. Schools like Augus- 
tana College at Rock Island, Gustavus Adolphus College at St. 
Peter, Minnesota, and Bethany College at Lindsborg, Kansas, 
not onlv stand in the front rank of the educational institutions 



30 



of their respective States, but are even leaders in some depart- 
ments. These schools have been a source of tremendous power 
among citizens of Swedish extraction and have helped large 
numbers of other nationalities to obtain the advantages of a 
higher education. 

The educational tendencies of the Swedish-American schools 
may be briefly defined as follows : 

They are liberal ; though maintained by church denomina- 
tions, they are conducted on a broad basis and are endeavoring 
to impart "a broad Christian education free from narrow sectar- 
ianism." 

They are serious, sometimes almost to excess, and the frivol- 
ous spirit, often encountered in many institutions of our day, is 
generally lacking. They never lose sight of the real reason for 
their existence, — that they are institutions of learning and not 
football schools for the training of "gridiron heroes." Sport re- 
ceives its full share of attention and teams from these schools 
have often held high places in their various States ; but athletics 
are never allowed to occupy first place in the aspirations of the 
students. 

Their tendency is not to specialize narrowly, but to lay a 
broad liberal foundation either for future study at the Univer- 
sity and the seminary or for active participation in public life. 
Their courses are strong and the training they give is intensive. 
Their graduates measure up well with the best students of other 
institutions of the country, as can be seen by their records in 
the graduate departments of our large universities. Diplomas 
from our best Swedish-American colleges are recognized for ad- 
mission of candidates without examination at the universities of 
Upsala and Lund, whose courses are among the stiffest in Eur- 
ope. 

The Swedish-Americans at the present time are maintain- 
ing between eighteen and twenty private and denominational 
institutions of learning, besides a large number of business col- 
leges, conservatories of music, and innumerable parochial schools, 
where thousands of students and pupils receive instruction 
yearly. 

The parochial schools, among citizens of Swedish lineage, 
have not been established for the purpose of competing with the 
public institutions, as is the case among some other organiza- 
tions, — no citizens send their children more regularly to the 
public schools than the Swedes. It is to complement the public 
schools and to preserve the best traits of the Swedish char- 
acter, the great fund of Swedish literature and some of these 
other valuable qualities that have added an important element 
to American national life. As the church is the dominant factor 
(as far as I know every parochial school is operated by the 
church), religion is one of the main subjects taught. 

From the foregoing it may be inferred that Swedish children 

32 



are not found in our factories, nor on the street selling news- 
papers, but in the schools where they are moulded into good 
and patriotic citizens. It is no exaggeration to say that the Swed- 
ish immigrant group, like their forefathers in Sweden, spend more 
per capita on education than any other nationality. It is not un- 
common to find three or four sons of a Swedish farmer who have 
in turn attended college, and illiteracy among citizens of Swed- 
ish extraction is an absolutely unknown quantity. A consider- 
able percentage of the American soldiers of the late war from 
certain districts were illiterate, but every individual service man 
of Swedish lineage could at least read and write. 

The higher educational activities of the Swedes have not been 
confined to their own schools. Thousands of citizens of Swed- 
ish origin have attended colleges and universities that have no 
official connections with their national group. 

The graduates from these schools and from the Swedish- 
American institutions, together with immigrants from Sweden 
who have come here with an academic training, have made a rich 
contribution to the scholarship of the nation and occupy a promi- 
nent place in their respective fields. They have extended our 
knowledge in all branches of chemistry. They have added to our 
store of information in history, philology, anthropology, physics, 
mathematics, astronomy, psychology, in fact every section ot 
science. They have taken an active and sometimes leading part 
in our learned societies. Dr. Collin, for instance, was a founder 
of the American Philosophical Society, for many years its vice- 
president and one of its most active members. They have al- 
ways been prominent in medicine and law. The dean of Ameri- 
can surgery, W. W. Keen, known and honored in four continents, 
is of Swedish lineage, and some of the keenest minds of the legal 
profession are of Swedish extraction. 

They have furnished presidents for many of our colleges, 
and several of our universities, and they have professors in most 
of our large private and State institutions. 

They have supplied the superintendents of a large number 
of our public schools ^^ and an army of public and high school 
teachers, while they have provided librarians for some of our 
most important libraries. From their ranks have come some of 
our best known commercial chemists and experts in our great 
industrial plants. 

In literature proper, citizens of Swedish descent of our day ^* 
have perhaps made their least enduring contributions.^^ They 
have indeed written admirable novels, poems and short stories 
and published essays and books and literary criticism of a high 

" See page 47, below. 

" See page 15, above. 

" They have produced an extensive literature in Swedish, remarkable in 
variety and quality. 

33 



order (Alberg, Liljecrantz, Olson, Liljengren, Arthur Peterson, 
Frederick Peterson, Swanston-Howard, Sandburg, Bjorkman, 
Freeburg, Shogren-Farman, Swensson and many others), but 
their efforts are insignificant when compared with the small lib- 
raries written by men of Swedish extraction, in every conceivable 
department of science ; and none of their individual literary pro- 
ductions can even remotely be compared to such monuments of 
American scholarship as Keen's "System of Surgery" or Hart's 
"American Nation."-" 

Although the Swedes have furnished instances of brilliant 
success in journalism ^^ (in Moline, 111., Grand Rapids, Chicago, 
Minneapolis, St. Paul, New York, etc.), they have been somewhat 
backward in this profession, falling below the average. 

Another element of great cultural and educational value is 
the large number of societies found everywhere in Swedish- 
American centres. The underlying principle of most of these 
organizations is mutual benefit, social intercourse and mental 
development of its members.-- Many of them regularly arrange 
literary and musical programs as well as other public entertain- 
ments. Some have built beautiful club houses while others are 
leasing elaborate quarters (as is the case in Jamestown, Chicago, 
New York, Minneapolis, San Francisco and other places). There 
are often splendid libraries of special literature in connection 
with these clubs. Their number is well over a thousand, but only 
a few are of national scope and have attained a large member- 
ship. The most important of these are the Svithiod with a mem- 
bership of over 15,000, the Swedish United Societies of Chicago 
with about 15,000 members, the Good Templars with a member- 
ship of somewhat above 12,000, and the Order of Vasa, the most 
alert and active of them all, with a membership of more than 
50,000. 

Several societies of a purely literary or historical character 
have also been founded by the Swedish immigrant group. Among 
these may be mentioned the St. Erik, which although only 
three years old has achieved wonderful results, the Szvedish Colon- 
ial Society and the Szvedish American Historical Society. The 
Swedish Colonial Society, mainly composed of descendants of the 
early Swedes on the Delaware, has issued several important 
works connected with American history. It is located in Phila- 
delphia. The Swedish Historical Society, originally located in 
Chicago, has lately been moved to St. Paul, where it is assem- 
bling an invaluable collection of historical material concerning 
the activities of the Swedish immigrant group in America. 

'" Professor Albert Bushnell Hart and W. W. Keen are of Swedish 
descent. 

" Governor John A. Johnson was a country editor before his advent into 
pohtics. 

" For the "Singing Societies," see page 40, below. 

34 



GYMNASTICS, MECHANO-THERAPY, MANUAL 
TRAINING. 

The principles of Swedish gymnastics became known here 
in the early part of the nineteenth century, but they did not 
gain a foothold until many years later. Men like Longfellow and 
a few others who had some knowledge of Sweden and its culture 
were familiar with the main features and aims of the teachings of 
Per Henrik Ling, but their knowledge was superficial and 
they failed to appreciate the value of Ling's system. Besides, 
there were no trained teachers and leaders who could give an 
impetus to a new movement. 

A few years before the Civil War the so-called Swedish 
Movement Cure became well known in medical circles here 
through German and English sources, and in 1856 Charles 
Fayette Taylor went to London to study "the Swedish system of 
movement cure" under Dr. Roth,-^ a student of Ling. On his 
return to this country he at once became an enthusiastic exponent 
of "The Ling System of Cure." In December, 1860, he finished a 
book on the subject, which was published in Philadelphia the 
following year. Its title was "Theory and Practice of the Move- 
ment Cure." The frontispiece was a picture of Ling and it had 
the following dedication : "To Baron William de Wetterstedt, 
minister resident from Sweden and Norway to the United States, 
as a token of personal regard and as an expression of gratitude 
to the country he represents, which has produced, not least 
among her sons of unpretentious greatness, with a Celsius, a 
Linnseus, a Berzelius and Retzius, 

Peter Henry Ling, 
Poet and Philosopher, 

to teach us not only to despise effeminacy and to emulate the 
physical nobleness of the Old Norse Heroes, but to banish disease 
by the beautiful system he originated, 

This book is respectfully dedicated 
By the Author." 

It was followed by several other publications by the same 
author and he must be looked upon as the father of the move- 
ment for the furtherance of the Ling gymnastics in America, 
especially in its application for the cure of disease, and correc- 
tion of deformities. 

About the same time his brother. Dr. George Herbert Taylor, 
became interested in Swedish gymnastics. He went direct to 
Stockholm in 1858 and studied at Dr. Satherberg's Institute. 
Shortly after his return to this country he also published a book, 

"The very same year (1856) Dr. Roth published his famous Handbook 
of the Movement Cure which did much to spread knowledge of the subject 
in America. 

35 



"An Exposition of the Swedish Movement Cure" (New York, 
1861.)'* 

These two brothers were inspired with an almost religious 
enthusiasm for their master, the great Ling. They had a large 
following and did a monumental work for the cause of "The 
Swedish Movement Cure," and indirectly for Swedish gymnas- 
tics in general. 

When finally trained teachers in the various branches of 
Swedish gymnastics arrived from Sweden they found the field 
partly prepared. The movement, which thus started about the 
middle of the nineteenth century, has grown in extent, force 
and intensity until today every medical school pays some at- 
tention to the subject of Mechano-Therapy and "Swedish Move- 
ments" and many of our larger institutions and hospitals have 
established special departments for the study and application of 
its principles. In practically every city in the nation there is 
at least one (in the large centres there are many) practitioners, 
who give "massage and Swedish movement." A great many 
institutes for the treatment of special cases, have also been 
founded where Zander apparatus and other Swedish appliances 
and methods are used. 

Many highly trained gymnasts and practitioners, women as 
well as men, have come from Sweden in the last few years, like 
Nils Posse, C. J. Enebuske,. C. Collin, William Skarstrom, T. A. 
Melander, Jakob Bolin, J. B. Nylin, K. W. Ostrom, Grafstrom 
and others, too numerous to mention. Some of these have taken 
full courses in medicine and have done a wonderful work in dif- 
ferent parts of the country, as practitioners, teachers and writ- 
ers on the subject of their special field. 

As knowledge of Swedish medical gymnastics and 
Mechano-Therapy became more general, Swedish educational 
gymnastics began to win admirers and supporters and about 
thirty years ago we find it making headway against the estab- 
lished forms. The leaders in the new movement were Swedish- 
Americans, some of whom are mentioned above. Among the 
earliest of these were the late "champions in the cause of a sound 
body for a sound mind," Baron Nils Posse and Professor Jakob 
Bolin. Baron Posse exerted an immense influence as a teacher 
and writer and through his institute in Boston. Bolin's services 
to the country were hardly less valuable. He was for years a 
teacher of medical and educational gymnastics, notably in Brook- 
lyn, Chautauqua and at the University of Utah. "He was the 
first teacher of normal school pupils to call attention to the high 
value of the national dances as gymnastic material and he made 
them an integral part of his course. Through his wide circle of 

"The Preface is dated i860. 

36 



pupils and friends the interest in this phase of rhythmic activity 
soon became widespread." ^^ 

At the present time there are several institutes that specialize 
to a greater or less degree in Swedish gymnastics, some of which 
have been founded by Swedish-Americans, as for instance the 
Posse Gymnasium, in Boston, the Savage School for Physical 
Education; the Swedish Gymnastic Institute, in New York, and 
others. 

All these efforts have produced great and lasting results. 
Tangible evidence of this fact is to be found in the army and the 
navy and in many of our public schools and other institutions, 
where Swedish gymnastics have been adopted in a modified form. 
The benefit to the American people of Swedish medical and 
educational gymnastics in its various applications cannot be 
stated in terms or figures. Thousands owe their health and hap- 
piness to its curative powers and other thousands have been 
helped to keep well and strong by its corrective and preventive 

value. 

* * * 

Manual training in our schools has also received inspiration 
and impetus from Sweden and from Swedish-American teachers, 
who have come here with new and advanced ideas, acquired in 
their native land. The manual training movement here is of old 
standing, having been introduced in the early part of the nine- 
teenth century as a means of promoting the health of the stu- 
dents, especially in theological schools. It had a steady growth 
during the latter half of the century and spread to all parts of 
the country. But it was not until sloyd, in other words, educa- 
tional principles (for sloyd implies educational principles) was 
introduced into its teaching that it became manual training as 
we know it today. That some American teachers do not under- 
stand or appreciate the Swedish system (sloyd) is evident from 
such articles as "Manual Training at Naas," by Miss Pratt, but 
the majority of the leading educators know its value and have 
freely adopted many of its principles. As teachers in our manual 
training courses the Swedish-Americans are more numerous than 
any other immigrant group and they have helped to give va- 
riety, depth, content and efficiency to these courses and make 
them really vital elements in our public instruction. 

MUSIC. 

It is safe to say that no foreign element in America, with the 
exception of the Germans, has accomplished more for the better- 
ment of music and the growth of musical taste. 

Swedish music dates from 1638 when the first settlers on 
Christina River "joined in praises to their Creator and sang their 
folk songs from their far-off home." For a century later music 
was mostly religious, and with one or two exceptions, was fos- 

" He published Swedish Song-Plays which has gone through at least two 
editions. 

37 



tered principally by the pastors of the churches, some of whom 
even gave instructions in singing. 

It was not until the middle of the eighteenth century that 
the Swedish settlers cultivated secular music as a special art. 
About this time Hesselius was building organs and other musi- 
cal instruments here, and one or two others gave "instructions in 
dancing and playing on the fiddle." Church music, however, con- 
tinued to be the dominant feature throughout the Colonial per- 
iod and for about three-quarters of a century later, "Psalms," as 
Longfellow says, "were sung by the Swedes in their church at 
Wicaco." 

In the nineteenth century Swedish music grew in extent and 
influence with the increase of the arrivals from "the old country." 
"Wherever two or three Swedes were gathered together there 
you would have song and music," wrote a pioneer in 1870. Again 
as in the Colonial period the church "was the driving force" in 
the early days, and sacred music absorbed most attention ; but 
secular music was not entirely forgotten and no festive occasion 
was ever complete without patriotic and popular songs, except 




Messiah Chorus, Bethany College. 

among the "ultra pietists." The various churches continued for a 
long time to be the staunchest supporters of the art. Their views 
became gradually more liberal, and as time went on secular music 
received more care, especially from organizations that grew out 
of the church and became important adjuncts to its work. Thus 
concerts by the thousands have been arranged through the young 
people's societies of the various Swedish-American congrega- 
tions. These have been a source of enjoyment to great multi- 
tudes and have left deep and lasting impressions on the people. 
If possible, the church has had a still greater influence 
through its schools and colleges, practically all of which have 
musical departments, and vocal as well as instrumental instruc- 
tion on their curricula. These schools have trained thousands of 
young men and women, who in turn have become teachers all 
over the country, thus exerting a profound influence on musical 
taste. The student organizations (vocal and instrumental) at the 
colleges have also been a force in spreading musical knowledge. 
It is a well recognized fact that in the neighborhood where these 

38 



schools are located the musical standard is high and the com- 
munity is farther advanced in musical matters than elsewhere. 
One of the most notable instances is Lindsborg. Perhaps 
no city of its size in America can be compared to this little Kansas 
town in its musical activity. Here has developed a unique or- 
ganization — a chorus founded in 1882 for the purpose of render- 
ing Handel's "Messiah." The first beginnings were small and 
insignificant, but through unparalleled exertions and incomparable 
enthusiasm on the part of its leaders the organization achieved 
marvelous success. By 1900 it attracted nation-wide attention 
and has since from time to time been the object of articles and 
editorials in our leading journals. -'' Nothing in America can be 
compared to this achievement except, perhaps, the Bach Festival 
at Bethlehem, Pa. 

Bethany College is today perhaps the most important musi- 
cal centre in the great Southwest, and it has a musical influence 

out of all proportion to its size. 
Not only the Swedes in Kansas 
and neighboring States go to 
Lindsborg and enjoy the greatest 
presentation of the "Messiah" in 
America, but Anglo-Americans, 
and others, in ever increasing num- 
bers go there, and of the student 
body nearly sixty per cent, in the 
musical department are of non- 
Swedish extraction. 

Side by side with musical bod- 
ies that had their origin in the 
church other organizations arose 
with no religious connections. 
These have also been a strong force 
among Swedes and indirectly 
among the Americans. 

Professional musicians from 
Sweden came here in the early part of the century and even among 
the "Gold Diggers of '49" we find a Swedish orchestra. It 
was not until after the Civil War, however, that secular music 
outside of the church began to assume importance. The tri- 
umphs of Swedish song in Europe fired the enthusiasm of the 
Swedes everywhere, even beyond the borders of the fatherland. 
The enduring fame of Jenny Lind and the world-wide acclaim 
won by the Upsala Student Chorus at Paris in 1867, reacted 
on the Swedes in the New World, who were now increasing in 
numbers and in many cases, on the road to prosperity. 

"Singing societies" sprang up rapidly in Chicago, New York 
and other centres of Swedish population, and by 1870 Swedish 

'° The Outlook, 1907, 1908, etc. 




John A. Enander, Educator, 
Journalist, Poet. 



39 



secular, music, fostered by non-sectarian forces, was firmly estab- 
lished, and has since then had a steady growth. It is safe to 
say that today there is not a city or a town in the Union with a 
Swedish-American population of any size which is without a 
Swedish "singing society." Practically every club and literary 
association and every branch of the numerous Swedish benefit 
societies "in the wide nation" has its quartet or larger musical 
organization. 

The Danes and Norwegians also formed similar societies, 
and in order to make their singing more effective the various 
Scandinavian clubs combined their efforts and organized the 
United Scandinavian Singers of America in May, 1886. The as- 
sociation held "singing festivals" every two years "in a blaze of 
glory." But after the third festival, which took place in Min- 
neapolis in 1891, disagreements arose and the society disbanded. 
On its ruins, however, arose the American Union of Swedish 
Singers, whose success has been even more remarkable. Its 
first triumphs were three famous concerts at the World's Colum- 
bian Exposition in Chicago, July 20, 21 and 22, 1893. The chorus, 
500 strong, was assisted by a number of artists from Stockholm 
and the Thomas Orchestra of 140 pieces. The auditorium was 
filled to capacity and thousands vainly clamored for admission. 
It was a notable event in the annals of Swedish-American music. 
Not only the voices, but the compositions as well, were Swedish. 
The press paid its compliments in superlatives and the impetus 
given to musical study was immense. Every four years since 
then the Union has "held song festivals" with increased en- 
thusiasm and wonderful success. On three occasions a selected 
chorus from its ranks has visited Sweden, where it was received 
with boundless enthusiasm and sympathy. 

The sixty-five or more clubs that make up the Union have 
individually done notable work for the cause of good music all 
over the land and some of them have attained singular success. 
The Svithiod Club of Chicago, in 1896, in a contest with seven 
nationalities carried off the prize, — a banner proclaiming them 
"The Champion Singers of Chicago," and their leader, Mr. John 
L. Swenson, was awarded a gold medal. 

Another source of musical growth and influence has been 
the visiting artists and organizations from the mother country. 
Jenny Lind comes first in time and importance. She has been 
called the supreme singer of modern times. Caruso delighted 
tens of thousands and filled our most spacious opera houses to 
the last standing room. "Whole cities turned out to hear him," 
but entire nations and continents went wild over Jenny Lind. 
Never in history has a singer been accorded such receptions as 
were given to her, and it is safe to say that no artist of our 
or any other generation has left such an impression on the 
musical world of their day as she did. Her advent in American 
music marked the beginning of an era. Her tours of the con- 

40 



tinent in 1854 did more to stimulate interest in the musical art 
and arouse the people to efforts along all musical lines than any 
other events in the annals of early American music. Her con- 
certs, and the space given them in the daily press awakened 
public interest in musical matters among all classes of society 
and laid the foundation for the success of later artists. For fear 
of being accused of partiality and exaggeration I will quote the 
estimates of Fanny Morris Smith (in the Century, August, 1897, 
page 558) : 

"Jenny Lind's sojourn in America was fruitful in many 
ways. Her progress left a chain of charities through the 
land by which orphans and sick are still nurtured and healed. 
The rapture of her music created a criterion by which the 
success of every other artist has been measured from that 
day to this. The tradition of her pure and noble woman- 
hood has remained to music a bulwark against which the 
scandal and corruption of the operatic and musical world 
has broken in vain. In the memory of every human being 
who heard her, her singing has rung to the hour of death as 
the one perfect and sublime revelation of the beauty and 
ecstasy of music itself. This is much. But America owes 
Jenny Lind one other and greater debt that has never been 
recognized. . . .She brought the musical temperment of Amer- 
ica to consciousness of itself. Her tour was the supreme 
moment in our national history when young America, ardent, 
enthusiastic, impressible, heard and knew its own capacity 
for musical feeling forever. From that hour it has received 
or denied the world's greatest artists who have made pil- 
grimages hither, supreme in its own consciousness of its ar- 
tistic needs and temperament." 

Christina Nilsson, who toured this country several times 
from 1870 to 1884, likewise did much to keep musical interest 
alive. 

In the years 1876 to 1878 a ladies' quartet from Stockholm 
sang in some of the art centres in America, — Boston, New York, 
Chicago, San Francisco, etc. When the quartet disbanded at the 
end of 1878 the members remained here and continued their 
musical activities. Another ladies' quartet from Stockholm gave 
concerts in this country from 1878 to 1880 with notable success. 
Eight years later the Swedish Ladies' Octet arrived here and 
sang to large audiences at hundreds of places until 1891. Some of 
its members also remained in the country after the completion of 
the tour. A third ladies' quartet came here in 1902, but its 
achievements were less notable. 

The most important of all these organizations was the 
splendid student chorus of the University of Lund, which de- 
lighted the musical lovers of America with their song in 1904. 
Never before had an American audience listened to such a col- 

41 



lection of male voices, and the spontaneous acclaim given to their 
renditions was often overwhelming. "The chorus was received 
like a Roman conqueror with prisoners bound to his chariot 
wheels." 

Another almost equal triumph was obtained two years later 
by the Swedish Y. M. C. A. male chorus, which sang to immense 
audiences in many States. 

The Swedish-Americans have also furnished a number of 
artists for the American operatic stage. In the early period we 
find Jewett and one or two others and today there are Fremstad, 
Norelli, Sunderlius and Claussen, whose careers are too well 
known to need comment. 

Swedish-American leaders, performers and concert singers 
of wide fame are too numerous to mention. Gustaf Holmquist, 
Joel Mossberg, Mrs. Lancaster, J. V. Bergquist, Arvid Aker- 
lind, A. L. Skoog, Gustaf Stolpe, Emil Larson, Ester Hjelte, Per 
Olson, Ortengren, Edgren are only a few names taken at random 
as they occur to the author. 

Among these are several composers and harmonists, who 
have made numerous additions to nearly every department of 
music, notably Stolpe (whose individual pieces number well over 
one thousand), Bergquist, Larson, Skoog and Edgren. 

The above mentioned efforts along all lines have been ably 
supplemented by hundreds of private vocal and instrumental 
teachers in practically every city and hamlet in the Union. From 
the days of Wetterman and Wimmerstedt to the present time 
this army of able workers have spared no efforts, sometimes with 
slight remuneration, to make the most evanescent of arts a living 
reality in the American nation. 

THE FINE ARTS. 

The earliest forms of painting in America as a fine art were 
of Swedish origin and from New Sweden on the Delaware came 
the first and strongest impulses to American art during the 
Colonial period. Gustav Hesselius and his son, John, were the 
pioneers of American painting. Gustav Hesselius executed a large 
number of portraits of rich planters in Maryland and important 
men of the colony. He gradually gained a wide reputation and 
was the best-known artist in America in the first half of the 
eighteenth century. 

Eleven years after his arrival here he was engaged to paint 
an altar-piece for the St. Barnabas Church in Maryland, the 
only instance of a commission and public patronage "before the 
establishment of the Union. This remarkable painting is still 
preserved and gives the artist a high rank among the painters 
of his day. During his stay in Philadelphia he exhibited sev- 
eral of his works, among them the "Crucifixion," which attracted 
widespread attention and much comment. He was not only a 

42 



versatile artist, but also a teacher and gave instruction in many 
branches of painting. His son, although not as well-known as 
his father, deserves a conspicuous place in the history of early 
American painting, and a large number of canvases from his 
hand are still extant. He gave the first lessons to Charles Wilson 
Peale, the father of Rembrandt Peale, and he was probably 
largely responsible for directing the older Peale to his career as 
an artist. 

A still greater name is that of Adolf Ulric Wertmiiller, who 
came to this country in the Autumn of 1794 and settled in Phila- 
delphia. His fame, which had preceded him here and his influen- 




Gustavus Hesselius, Painted by Himself, 

tial connections in Paris, Stockholm and other places, made it 
easy for him to gain an admittance into the best circles of Phila- 
delphia, which at that time was the art centre of America. 
Shortly after his arrival, he was fortunate enough to obtain the 
consent of President Washington for a sitting. The result was 
the famous portrait, which since then has been widely reproduced. 
It differs from all other delineations of "The Father of His 
Country," and presents him in "a more aristocratic guise" than 
he was usually known by his countrymen.-"'' 

■"" See page 4, above. 



43 



In Wertmiiller's diary for November 8, 1794, we find the fol- 
lowing: "Finished the portrait of General Washington. . . . 
A black velvet coat, bust, half-length canvas. This portrait is 
for myself." 

Wertmiiller soon returned to his native land. Here he was 
received with great distinction, and was ottered a professorship 
at the Academy of Art in Stockholm. However, his thoughts 
were of America and he returned to Philadelphia in 1800, where 
he continued his activities as an artist for several years. After 
his marriage to a wealthy Philadelphia lady of Swedish descent, 
he settled on a farm near the city, where he died in 1812. 

Wertmiiller was one of the founders of the Society of 
Artists in Philadelphia and he exhibited "Ceries" at the first 
annual exhibit in 1811. His most famous picture, and the one 
which caused most comment and had the greatest influence was 
the "Danae." This was exhibited in Philadelphia and later in 
New York and brought the artist a considerable revenue from 
the admission charge. In New York the painting was exhibited 
by Jarvis and it is interestng to note that Henry Inman, one of 
the early American painters, saw it there on several visits to the 
studio of Jarvis. Wertmiiller's influence on American art was 
considerable, especially through his emphasis on color and cor- 
rect and exact technique. 

* * * 

The fine arts, for obvious reasons, received slight attention 
apiong the early Swedish settlers of the nineteenth century. They 
were nearly all unlettered and uninterested in art and had neither* 
time nor opportunity for acquiring luxuries that are common 
today. 

It was not until the Swedish-American colleges (founded for 
quite other purposes, however) established courses or depart- 
ments of art, that interest in painting and sculpture became gen- 
eral and received patronage and support in large circles of citizens 
of Swedish origin. 

Two of these schools, the Augustana College and Bethany 
College, have had a profound influence on the artistic tastes.-^ A 
large number of students have attended these courses, many of 
whom have later become artists or teachers of art. Others not 
specially interested in the subject, as a means of a livelihood, 
have received a proper conception of art and its place in modern 
life and have, in turn, become "missionaries of artistic taste." 

For several years, the departments of art at these colleges 
have arranged exhibits which have been attended by large num- 
bers and which have been a strong factor in educating the public 
to the true value of art. 

According to the Immigrant Comrmssion Report, 191 1, there 

" Attempts to establish departments of art at two or three of the other 
Swedish-American schools proved failures. 

44 



are about 150 artists or teachers of art of Swedish origin in 
America. Some of these have an international reputation and 
are classed among the greatest painters, illustrators and sculp- 
tors in the world. ^® 

It is a curious fact that many of the best-known Swedish- 
American artists have developed their artistic talents since their 
arrival in this country and hence are really products of Ameri- 
can civilization, — their works, however, are tinged by their racial 
traits and by influences from Swedish artists. By fortunate cir- 
cumstances they drifted into art and found their life-work and 
calling. It is still more remarkable that some of the greatest of 
them all have at no time had instruction in the field in which they 
have won world-wide renown, as, for instance, Henry Reuterdahl, 
the famous illustrator and marine painter; Thure de Thulstrup, 
the well-known painter and illustrator; Ch. E. Hallberg, painter 
of international reputation ; August Franzen, portrait painter, 
known in two continents, etc. 

Besides the annual exhibits at the Swedish-American col- 
leges, there have been several large exhibitions in Chicago, New 
York, Jamestown and elsewhere, of paintings and sculpture by 
Swedish-American artists. The first of these was held in Chi- 
cago in 1905. It was well patronized by the public, but it proved 
a financial failure and was not repeated. However, six years 
later, another exhibit was arranged in the Swedish Club in Chi- 
cago and so ably managed that it was an entire success and has 
been repeated every year since then. Last year another impor- 
tant exhibition was held in New York. It was splendidly sup- 
ported by a large number of artists and received considerable at- 
tention not only from the public but from the press of the Me- 
tropolis. It was warmly praised for the high standards it main- 
tained, and the excellence of most of the individual numbers. 

Direct influence by Swedish-American artists on American 
art is difficult to estimate, especially as so many of them have ob- 
tained their training and artistic points of view in American in- 
stitutions. They have, however, been largely influenced by the 
great painters of modern Sweden and have carried some of these 
peculiar traits into their artistic productions. The main charac- 
teristic is perhaps their love of color, freedom of movement and 
fondness for prairie and marine scenes. Traces of these quali- 
ties are to be observed in many American productions of the last 
few years, especially in the colored illustrations in some of our 
foremost 'publications. 

^' The following are a few of the best known Swedish-American painters, 
sculptors and illustrators : A. V. Anderson, C. O. Borg, O. Cesare, J. E. Carlson, 
D. Edstrom, K. J. Forsberg, A. Franzen, Ch. Friberg, O. Grafstrom, C. Hall- 
berg, Hugo von Hofsten, O. Jacobson, G. Larson, C. E. Lundin, G. E. Lund- 
berg, G. N. Malm, Arvid Nyholm. C. J. Nilsson, O. E. Olson, Henry Reuter- 
dahl, H. Ryden, K. F. Skoog, B. Sandzen, Thure de Thulstrup. 

45 



POLITICS. 

The political activities and contributions of the Swedes have 
been under-estimated and often misunderstood. It is unfair to 
compare them with the Irish or English, who have a decided ad- 
vantage over other foreigners in the matter of language. The 
language forms the greatest dividing line between them and the 
native-born and sometimes offers insurmountable obstacles to 
their political success. The English and Irish come here fully 
equipped, as far as language is concerned, and can thus from the 
start take up the contest for office with the native-born. Thus 
eliminating- the Ene^lish and Irish, the Swedes will compare fav- 
orably with other nationalities in their political history. 

It is true that politics, as a profession in itself, seldom ap- 
peals to the Swede. His training, education and tradition, as a 
rule, have been along other lines. His manner is too direct and 
he generally lacks those qualities which are a necessary adjunct 
to the successful politician. Deceit, cunning and hypocrisy are 
weapons he uses clumsily, if at all. With him a promise, whether 
made on the public platform or in private, is an obligation to be 
taken seriously and not tossed aside, if convenience should re- 
quire it. Productive labor is more to his liking, and most Swedes 
would rather be designers of bridges or commercial edifices, than 
architects of political machines or public organizations. 

But this does not imply that the Swedish-Americans are in- 
different to politics or that they lack interest in their local, muni- 
cipal. State or national government. The Swedish-Americans 
rarely fail to make use of their voting privileges, and they fol- 
low, perhaps more closely than other nationalities, the progress 
of the various campaigns. 

As they, or their descendants, have become fully imbued with 
American ideas and ideals of political principles, they have meas- 
ured up favorably with the best, and have sometimes taken a 
leading part in the political life of their communities. That they 
are not wanting in the qualities that make for the best public 
leadership is shown by the fact that in late years they have 
furnished many prominent men in our political life — governors,^® 
lieutenant governors and other State officials, as well as mem- 
bers of the upper and lower branches of the State and National 
Assemblies,^" mayors and other officials of our cities, ^^ judges in 
the various courts of Minnesota, Illinois and other States. In the 
colonial period John Hanson was president of "the United States 
in Congress Assembled" and John Morton was one of the signers 
of the Declaration of Independence. 

If we take as an example a typical State in which the Swedes 

*' Governors in Minnesota, Dakota, Colorado. 
*° Lindbergh, Lundin, Lundquist, Peterson, Lenroot, etc. 
^ Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, Chicago, Jamestown, N. Y., Philadel- 
phia, Worcester, Brooklyn, etc. 

46 



are numerous, and where they have obtained a large degree of 
prosperity by virtue of long residence, we find them everywhere 
in political offices. Thus, in the various executive departments 
of the State of Minnesota, there are twenty incumbents who 
were born in Sweden, while there are only nineteen of all other 
nationalities.^- 

In the House of Representatives their proportion for the 
last few years has varied between 18 and 30 per cent, of the 
total, while in the State Senate the percentage has been between 
11 and 22 per cent, of the total. It is a curious fact that their 
number nearly doubled in the Senate from 1911 to 1921, while 
in the House of Representatives they lost nearly 12 per cent, in 
the same period. Taking it from another angle we likewise ar- 
rive at interesting results. Seventy-three out of eighty-six 
counties (84^ per cent.) in the State have one or more office- 
holders born in Sweden, a larger number than any other national- 
ity. Again, if we list the various county officials for 1921 we shall 
find that the Swedes have contributed : 

23 Auditors (26% of the total). 

13 Treasurers (15% of the total). 

20 Registers of Deeds (23% of the total). 

16 Sheriffs (18>4% of the total). 
8 Attorneys (9% of the total). 

13 Judges of Probate (15% of the total). 
.11 Surveyors (12J^% of the total). 

17 Coroners (19>^% of the total). 

17 Clerks of Court (19>^% of the total). 

6 Court Commissioners (6^% of the total). 

10 Superintendents of Schools (11>^% of the total). 

83 County Commissioners (19% of the total). 

They have furnished the State with four governors who held 
office eighteen years, or 28>^ per cent, of the period since the first 
governor was installed in 1858. They have supplied four Sec- 
retaries of State, who served fifteen years, or 23 per cent, of the 
total, and ten Assistant Secretaries of State, who served twenty- 
three years, or 361^^ per cent, of the total. Thus we see that 
while the Swedes or their descendants constitute about 17 per 
cent, of the population of the State, they have in some cases 
contributed as high as 36 per cent, of its political officers, while 
their average is over 19 per cent., a record that is surely worthy 
of respect, and surpassed by few. 

In their political capacity they are generally of a construc- 
tive trend of mind. Perhaps no governor in any of the forty- 
eight States has to his record so large a number of beneficial 
and important, in some cases almost epochal, measures as Gov- 

^ Three or four born in Canada, England and Ireland are not included 
for reasons given above. ' 

47 



ernor John A. Johnson, of Minnesota. As individuals and as a 
group they have exerted their influence for good government 
and their record in public office is untarnished. Some of their 
most influmential men, like Carl Swensson, John Enander and 
others, although, not politicians by profession, have taken an 
active and leading part in the presidential and State campaigns. 
Dr. Swensson especially traveled from coast to coast in the in- 
terest of the election of Harrison and McKinley and was uni- 
versally considered one of the ablest and most versatile campaign 
speakers of the nation. 




C. A. Swensson, Founder of Bethany College and 
Messiah Chorus. 

The Swedes, except in one or two isolated cases, have never 
been driven from their mother country by religious or political 
persecutions. The mainspring of their desires to migrate has 
been economic. To seek new and larger fortunes in the land 
of "unlimited possibilities," to hunt a better market for their 
work, or to find more fertile soil for their farms, this has been 
the cause that impelled the vast majority to leave "the land of 
the midnight sun." They have been accustomed to free gov- 



48 



ernment, based on the consent of the governed, and they appre- 
ciate our democratic organization and free institutions. They 
are conservative by nature ; new and untried theories do not ap- 
peal to them. Hence you rarely find Swedish members in radical 
organizations or pronounced Bolshevistic societies. People who 
have been oppressed, persecuted and downtrodden in their na- 
tive land come here to gain liberty, but they are seldom satis- 
fied with the freedom they find. It does not conform to the ideas 
they have pictured, constructed out of imaginary conditions, and 
when they find that our Government does not measure up to their 
fantastic creations, they at once become its enemies and grow 
more dissatisfied with our political conditions than they were in 
their old home. 

Not so the Swedes or Swedish-Americans. They are nearly 
all Republicans and they generally vote the Republican platform 
without being influenced by religion, race or nationality. Loyalty 
to their affiliations is a basic characteristic of their make-up and 
sometimes they have carried this quality nearly beyond what was 
conducive to good government. 

Lately, however, they have shown considerable independ- 
ence. They flocked by the thousands to Roosevelt's banner, and 
on one occason since then they have voted the Democratic 
ticket in large numbers. In a few cases the Swedes have also 
formed very successful political organizations like the "Swedish- 
American Republican Club of Massachusetts," ^^ and the "John 
Ericsson Republican League." According to official figures fur- 
nished me by Dr. Hugo O. Peterson, of Worcester, President of 
the Eastern Section of the League, it has a voting strength in 
the eastern States, and some other, as follows : 

New York 108,000 

Massachusetts 80,000 

Pennsylvania 92,000 

Connecticut 72,000 . 

New Jersey 42,000 

Rhode Island 28,000 ' 

Ohio 11,000 

Maine 10,000 

New Hampshire 8,000 

Maryland 5,000 

Delaware 1,000 

Michigan 60,000 

Missouri 15,000 

Texas 10,000 

''The object of this organization is thus described in the Preamble to the 
Constitution and By-Laws: "We, Swedish-American Voters of Massachus- 
etts, in order to further the cause of good Government, Naturalization, Reg- 
istration and Patriotic Citizenship, in a field where we feel we can accom- 
plish the greatest results, organized this club to be known as 'The Swedish- 
American Club of Massachusetts.' " 

49 



A rather curious reason has been assigned for the Republi- 
can tendencies of the Swedish-Americans. It has been stated 
that their affiliations with the Republican Party is due to the fact 
that this organization has possessed the most forceful and most 
heroic leaders, such as Lincoln, Grant, Roosevelt and others, 
whose deeds and impressive personalities have appealed to the 
Swedes. "For the Swedes," it has been stated, "are a mon- 
archial people who admire great leaders." In other words, they 
are hero worshippers. This undoubtedly is not the true ex- 
planation for their decided "Republican faith." It is due to quite 
other circumstances. 

• The Swedes settled largely in the Northern States, where 
the Republican Party was strong, and furthermore their leaders 
and teachers like Hasselquist, Olson, Enander and others, who 
left an indelible imprint on the religious and political life of 
the Swedes in America, were, as a body, opposed to slavery, and 
thus naturally sided with the party, which in public thought 
became associated with the freeing of the slaves.^'* 

The early Swedish papers, whose editors were Republicans 
for the reason stated above, also had a large share in forming 
the political opinions of the Swedish immigrants. 

Besides, some of the principles of the Republican Party 
that have occasioned most debate, and that have recurred in 
practically every election, such as the tariff question, are "articles 
of political faith" which the majority of "the agricultural Swedes" 
take for granted, as they have been the working tenets of the 
Swedish Government for generations. "A Swedish farmer is by 
nature and inclination a protectionist," it has been said, and we re- 
member that the early immigrants of the nineteenth century were 
from the farming communities in the old country .^^ These to my 
mind are the causes that have brought the Swedish-Americans as 
a body into the Republican fold. 

SWEDES IN AMERICAN WARS. 

No nationality can show a more brilliant or more dis- 
tinguished record in the wars of America than the Swedes. Even 
in the early Indian wars they played a small but illustrious 
part. 

It was not until the Revolution, however, that they were 
sufficiently numerous to play a rather conspicuous role. In no 
country in Europe did the American Revolution find so great a 
sympathy as in Sweden, and dozens of officers offered their 
services. Even the famous General Sandels, whose father had 

'" It is to be remembered that the negroes are largely Republican for 
the same reason. 

*°When later immigrants arrived from Sweden they were confronted 
with "the solid Republicanism" of the Swedish-American press and of 
their predecessors, who were established in the country and hence spoke with 
authority, and the newcomers thus naturally fell in line with the rest. 

SO 



been a pastor in Philadelphia, prepared to go to America, but 
was turned back at Paris. King Gustav III wrote as follows 
to a friend: "If I were not King I would proceed to America 
and offer my sword on behalf of the brave colonists." As a mat- 
ter of fact, fourteen Swedish officers fought for American free- 
dom^*^ in Washington's armies, and in that section of the French 
fleet which aided the American campaigns. 

The descendants of the early Swedes were the bravest of 
the brave in the Continental army, and the settlers along the 
Delaware were subjected to great hardships and untold suffering 
by the English troops for their loyalty to the Revolutionary cause. 
They fought in large numbers in the ranks, and they furnished 
some of the most brilliant officers and leaders in the struggle. 
John Hanson, John Morton, Thomas Sinnixon are names that 
need no eulogy; they are enrolled among the founders of the 
Republic. But not only as warriors did they contribute to the 
victory of the Revolution. Rev. Nils Collin did notable service 
with his pen, and the moral influence of the Swedish Govern- 
ment was great. (Our first Treaty of Commerce and Amity with 
any nation was concluded with Sweden.) 

The Swedes who took part in the Mexican War were few; 
but Captain Malmborg and one or two others distinguished them- 
selves in that struggle. 

* * * 

In the Civil War they stood as a man behind Lincoln. The 
citizens of Swedish birth, in these early days, were to some ex- 
tent influenced by opinions in the mother country. The whole 
Swedish nation was heart and soul with the Northern States. 
This naturally strengthened the convictions of the Swedes here. 
When Lincoln issued his first call for volunteers no foreign- 
born citizen responded more enthusiastically than the Swedes, 
who sometimes formed whole companies and offered themselves 
in a body. The response was so great that about 16^ per cent, 
of the total Swedish-American population volunteered for serv- 
ice in the Northern armies, which would have swelled their num- 
ber to the vast sum total of 3,800,000 men if the native popula- 
tion and other nationalities had responded in equal proportion 
to the Swedes. 

The majority of the Swedish-Americans were private sol- 
diers, but they had had previous military training, and therefore 
possessed an advantage over the native-born. From their ranks 
rose officers of every class, many of whom were recognized as 
among the foremost tacticians of the American army. The un- 
stinted praise lavished on Captain Malmborg and General Stol- 
brand deserves to be known by every one interested in Swedish- 
American history. This is what Colonel Stuart says of Captain 
Malmborg: 

^ Von Fersen, Stedingk, Peterson, etc. 

51 



"I was under great obligations to Lieutenant Colonel 
Malmborg whose military education and experience were 
of every importance to me. Comprehending at a glance the 
purpose and object of every movement of the enemy, he 
was able to advise me promptly and intelligently as to the 
disposition of my men. He was cool, observant, discreet 
and brave, and of infinite service to me." 

The great General Sherman^^ knew war and he knew a war- 
rior when he saw one. This is his opinion of the Swedish-Amer- 
ican, General Stolbrand : "A braver man and a better artillery 
officer than General Stolbrand could not be found in the entire 
army." 

The story of General Stolbrand's promotion is worthy of re- 
peating. It has been told as follows : 

"Stolbrand had served in his corps for some time with 
the rank of major, and performed such services as properly 
belonged to a colonel or brigadier-general without being 
promoted according to his merits, because there had been no 
vacancy in the regiment to which he belonged. Displeased 
with this, Stolbrand sent in his resignation, which was 
accepted, but Sherman had made up his mind not to let him 
leave the army and asked him to go by way of Washington 
on his return home, pretending that he wished to send im- 
portant dispatches to President Lincoln. In due time Stol- 
brand arrived in the capital and handed a sealed package to 
the President in person. Having looked the papers through, 
Lincoln extended his hand, exclaiming, 'How do you do, 
General,' Stolbrand, correcting him, said, T am no general ; 
I am only a major.' 'You are mistaken,' said Lincoln; 'you 
are a general' — and he was from that moment. In a few 
hours he received his commission and later returned to the 
army." 

It would take us too far afield to relate in detail the serv- 
ices of these or other Swedish-American officers who gave their 
best energies, and sometimes their lives, that "the government of 
the people, for the people and by the people should not perish 
from the earth." 

But we cannot leave this section without an account of at 
least two members of the famous Dahlgren family. Admiral John 
Adolph Dahlgren and his son, Ulric. 

Before the war Admiral Dahlgren had served several years 
in the navy, and was assigned to ordnance duty at Washington 
in 1843, "much against his wish, as his inclination was for active 
service afloat." His progress and promotion was rapid and he 
introduced improvements and innovations that "made the U. 

" General Sherman was in advance of his times in his employment of 
artillery which foreshadowed the tactics of today. 

52 



S. Navy the most efficient and formidable in the world." At the 
outbreak of the war he was the only commissioned officer in the 
Washington Navy Yard who did not go over to the Confederate 
side, and through his bravery and decisive action he saved this 
important military establishment from destruction or capture. 
In July, 1862, he was made chief of the Bureau of Ordnance and 
the following year he received "the thanks of Congress" and was 
given the rank of Rear Admiral. In July, 1863, he was made 
commander of the South Atlantic blockading squadron, which 
comprised over ninety ships. In this capacity he performed sig- 
nal service for his country and materially shortened the war.^^ 
But his aid in the war was not confined to the navy. The 
army also profited by his genius. The Dahlgren cannon, were 
like the "Berthas" of the late war, a new departure and gave the 
North a decided advantage in several engagements. This is how 
the "National Cyclopeedia of American Biography" speaks of 
them : 

"The Dahlgren guns, for whose recognition he workeu 
vainly for years, are historic, not only the fact that they 
furnished the model and impetus for model naval arma- 
ments, but also for their wonderful part in saving the in- 
tegrity of the Federal Union. They were many strides in 
advance of anything that preceded them, in scientific prin- 
ciple of construction, accuracy, power and endurance ; they 
necessitated ironclad ships and also set a period to the old 
theories of land fortification. . . ." 

In "nine important engagements in the Civil War . . . 
they turned the tide of success. At Port Royal, S. C, No- 
vember 6, 1861, where the frigate 'Wabash' with her forty 
Dahlgren guns silenced the forts and secured a harbor for 
the Federal fleet ; at the attacks on Forts Jackson and St 
^hilip, April 24, 1862, when the fleet under Farragut and 
Porter destroyed the Confederate rams and earthworks ; 
at the battle between the U. S. 'Monitor,' 'Weehawken,' and 
the Confederate iron-clad, 'Atlanta,' June 17, 1863, when the 
two Dahlgren guns of the former crushed the sides of the 
enemy in twenty-six minutes; at the blockade of Charleston 
Harbor, when the Dahlgren guns not only silenced the forts, 
but put an effective stop to blockade running; during the 
siege of Vicksburg, May to July, 1863, when the heavy Dahl- 
grens, loaned by Admiral Porter, accomplished the silenc- 
ing of the forts in four days ; at the battle between the 
'Kearsarge' and 'Alabama,' July 19, 1864, when the two 
eleven-inch Dahlgrens of the Federal ship sunk the enemy 
in fifty-nine minutes ; at Farragut's attack on Mobile, in 
August, 1864, when the formidable ram 'Tennessee,' a terror 

^ The Dahlgren Proving Grounds of the American Navy are named in 
his honor. 

S3 



to ships of every class, was destroyed by the steady fire of the 
monitors 'Manhattan' and 'Chickasaw' ; at Fort Fisher, Jan- 
uary 15, 1865, where the roar from the crescent of Dahlgren 
guns of Admiral Porter's fleet resembled Niagara, and their 
precision of fire was wonderful, knocking the Confederate 
guns quickly out of existence, as well as the gunners. The 
most memorable occasion of their use, however, was at the 
battle of Hampton Roads, between the 'Monitor' and the 



Admiral Dahlgren's son, Ulric Dahlgren, was a young law 
student, only nineteen, when the war broke out. A year later he 
volunteered for service and advanced rapidly. After brilliant 
exploits in several engagements, some of which were celebrated 
in poetry and painting ^^ he was wounded in the Gettysburg 
campaign, and invalided home. 

From the very inception of the war, reports of southern 
atrocities of the most horrible character circulated in the north- 
ern papers, of course matched by equally horrible tales in south- 
ern publications, supposed to have been perpetrated by Union 
soldiers. These stories poisoned the minds and made the strug- 
gle exceptionally bitter. The most widely circulated tales cen- 
tred around "the horrible dungeons of Richmond," where our 
soldiers "in filth, want and disease were suffering all that neglect 
and vengeance could inflict." It aroused the deepest indigna- 
tion in all circles of the North, and was something akin to the 
submarine campaign of the late war in its effect on public opin- 
ion. Appeals were made by the Washington Government and 
privately but to no avail. 

Finally an expedition was fitted out to release the Union 
soldiers confined in the prisons of Richmond. The entire force 
was to be composed of cavalry, four thousand strong. An in- 
dependent column of five hundred men, picked from all the regi- 
ments, was to perform the most difficult part of the mission by 
leading the way and reconnoitering. It was placed under the 
command of young Dahlgren, who had volunteered for service in 
the enterprise. He was not even fully restored to health when 
the expedition was prepared (he had lost one leg as a result of 
his wound), but he was anxious and eager to take part. His let- 
ter to his father on the eve of departure to the South is interest- 
ing: 

"^ Major General Sigel wrote as follows about one of these exploits : 
"Dear Sir: — It affords me pleasure to say that your son Ulric Dahlgren, on 
my staff, has returned from Fredericksburg, after executing one of the most 
brilliant and daring expeditions since the breaking out of the war, the par- 
ticulars of which you will learn from the newspapers, and from a copy of 
his report to me which I enclose to you. His modesty is as commendable 
as his skill and bravery. I esteem his soldierly and good manly qualities very 
highly, and think you have much to be gratified at in him." 

54 



"Headquarters, Third Division Cavalry Corps, 
"Stevensburg, Feb. 26, 1864. 

"Dear Father, — I have not returned to the fleet, because 
there is a grand raid to be made, and I am to have a very- 
important command. If successful, it v^ill be the grandest 
thing on record; and if it fails, many of us will 'go up.' I 
may be captured, or I may be 'tumbled over' ; but it is an 
undertaking that if I were not in, I should be ashamed to 
show my face again. With such an important command, I 
am afraid to mention it, for fear this letter might fall into 
wrong hands before reaching you. I find that I can stand 
the service perfectly well without my leg. I think we will 
be successful, although a desperate undertaking. 

"Aunt Patty can tell you, when you return. I will write 
you more fully when we return. If we do not return, there 
is no better place to 'give up the ghost.' 

"Your affectionate son, 

"ULRIC DAHLGREN." 

But the expedition was not successful. Dahlgren was mis- 
led by a blundering guide. His column was ambushed near its 
objective, and the young officer met a heroic though horrible 
death. It was said that his body was stripped, mutilated and 
buried in an unknown grave. It was this the poet had in mind 
when he said : 

"Sentry stand the Southern pines. 
Tenderly the moonlight shines, 
Where the mould hath hidden deep 
Hero-dust where none may weep ; 
Ever towards that lonely glen 
Turn the hearts of Northern men ; 
Voices 'neath a Southern sky 
Breathe a name that cannot die, — 
DAHLGREN!" 

His body was later recovered and carried to a place of safety. 

The event caused a wave of indignation throughout the 
Northern States and the treatment to which Colonel Dahlgren's 
body was supposed to have been submitted was featured by the 
Union press in issue after issue. The death of no other Union 
officer caused such widespread comment and aroused the nation 
to such fiery patriotism and such determined cries for revenge. 
In its effect on the public mind it can be compared only to the 
execution of Edith Cavell. It was like a clarion call to the 
Northern youth. Speeches and articles, recounting his death 
and calling for a reckoning grew and gathered in force. Poets 
without number joined in the chorus. Charles Henry Brock ex- 
claimed: 

55 



"Quench the burning indignation, 
Check the rising tear; 
Be his sepulchre the Nation, 
And the Land his bier! 

Hellish vengeance hath consigned him 

To a grave unknown ; 
Freedom's angel hath enshrined him 

By Bier altar-stone. 

Curse and mangle, O ye traitors ! 

What is left of him ; 
Crush and sever, ruthless haters ! 

Every youthful limb ; 

Blide him in your dark morasses, 

That no verdant sod 
E'er may tell, to him who passes, 

Where he rests with God. 

But ye cannot crush the story 

Of his hero-worth, 
Nor debase his wealth of glory 

With ignoble earth. 

And ye cannot hide the gleaming 

Of his hero-name. 
For it kindles with each beaming 

Of his Country's fame ! 

Spirit of the son immortal ! 

Wailings of the sire ! 
Peace, for in your Nation's portal 

Hangs the funeral lyre ; 

Breathing there the mighty chorus 

Of the young and brave. 
Blow he died, awhile before us. 

Liberty to save ! 

Oh ! be this the consolation, 

This the mourner's pride. 
That the story fires the Nation, 

How he lived and died ! 

Be the sepulchre that holds him 

Hidden as it may, 
'Tis his Country that enfolds him 

With her native clay." 



56 



After the war the remains were brought North and laid in 
state in the City Hall of Washington, guarded by officers, and on 
the following day Henry Ward Beecher delivered the funeral 
sermon in the presence of the "President, with nearly all his 
cabinet, the mayor of the city and other distinguished persons." 
In the course of his oration Rev. Beecher took occasion to say: 
"Dahlgren ! The name aforetime was strange to English 
lips, and of sound foreign to English ears. But now it is no 
longer your land from which it came ! It is ours ; it is Amer- 
ican. Our children shall wear it, and, as long as our history 
lasts, Dahlgren shall mean truth, honor, bravery, and heroic 
sacrifice." 

On the way to its final resting place the body was escourted 
through Baltimore by Union soldiers, and upon arriving at Phil- 
adelphia it was placed in the Hall of Independence "in the time- 
honored chamber, whence issued that declaration which ranked 
this country in the family of recognized nationalities." From 
there it was taken to the Laurel Plill Cemetery. 

* * * 

One of the decisive, according to some critics, the decisive, 
factor in the war, was the battle between the "Monitor" and the 
"Merrimac." There may be differences of opinion as to the 
priority of the claims for some of the features that made the 
"Monitor" a new and destructive weapon of the ocean, but there 
is no doubt that John Ericsson's "Monitor" was the first ship of 
its kind to ride the waves, that it won a fight which became a 
turning point in the Civil War, that it revolutionized naval war- 
fare and made all the fleets of the Seven Seas obsolete over 
night.*° 

Credit has been given to a Swedish petty officer for the de- 
cision which gave victory to Ericsson's ship.*^ Several veterans 
from the period claimed the honor of belonging to the crew of 
the ship during the battle in Hampton Roads, and only recently 
"the last survivor" died in the East. But there seems to be 
no doubt that Hans Anderson was the last survivor, and accord- 
ing to him the happy outcome of the battle was due to the sug- 
gestion of Carl Peterson, who proposed that the cannon, as the 
shells did not seem to harm the well-protected "Merrimac," 

*" "The 'Monitor' was the crystallization of forty centuries of thought on 
attack and defense, and exhib'ted in a singular manner the old Norse ele- 
ment of the American Navy; Ericsson (Swedish, son of Eric) built her; 
Dahlgren (Swedish, branch of the valley) armed her; and Worden (Swed- 
ish, wording, worthy), fought her. How the ancient skalds would have 
struck their wild harps on hearing such names in heroic verse ! How they 
would have written them in immortal runes !" 

Admiral Luce in a paper before the Naval Institute, April 20, 1876. See 
Church, Life of Ericsson, I. 

" The majority of the crew on Ericsson's "Monitor" were Swedes. 

57 



should be loaded with a double charge. This was done and the 
"Merrimac" soon withdrew from the combat. 

Volumes have been written in dispute as to which of the 
two ironclads won the day. On the surface the result seems 
like a draw, but if we look deeper and inquire into the facts of 
the combat, the result must be decided a complete victory for 
the "Monitor." In war it is our aim to check the enemy's designs, 
and eventually to capture or destroy his forces. 

"The task of the day chosen by the 'Merrimac'," says a 
naval officer, "was to destroy the 'Minnesota,' to clear Hamp- 
ton Roads of hostile ships, and to open a free seaway for 
herself for wider operations. The task of the 'Monitor' was 
to prevent the execution of this design, which she did with 
complete success by checking the enemy at the very first 
stage of his program. Baffled in the attack upon the 'Minne- 
sota,' the 'Merrimac' abandoned the field and left her enemy 
in possession; instead of destroying the Federal ships, she 
did not destroy anything, and at the end of the day was not 
even in their presence. The duty assigned to the 'Monitor' 
was to protect the wooden ships, and she protected them ; 
when night fell, she was still on guard over them, grim, ugly 
and ready to fight." 

"The success of the 'Monitor' completely changed the 
aspect of the opening military campaign, and raised the 
North from the depths of apprehension to a pinnacle of hope 
and celebration. No single event of the Civil War, as has 
been often said, so excited popular enthusiasm, and the 
'Monitor' furnished for a long time material for public dis- 
cussion and applause. The officers — Worden, Greene, and 
Stimers, particularly — found themselves suddenly popular 
heroes, and in all this adulation it is pleasant to know that 
the real author of all the success, John Ericsson, was not 
overlooked. He who had been looked at with suspicion as 
an 'inventive crank' was now overwhelmed with honors, and 
recognized as a national benefactor, and the foremost engi- 
neer of his time." 

No other sea conflict in history ever attracted such wide- 
spread attention and comment, and the revolution in naval archi- 
tecture, that has led to the super-dreadnoughts of today, began at 
once among all maritime nations. 

Within a week after the battle the Government at Washing- 
ton ordered the construction of six ships of the "Monitor" type. 
The contract was given to Ericsson, who rushed the work with 
such speed that they were all ready in about ten months. Several 
improvements were introduced and it is worth remembering that 
all, except one (which was sunk by a Southern torpedo), re- 
mained on the list of naval ships for a generation and were pre- 

58 



pared for coast defense duty during our war with Spain in 

1898. 

* * * 

In the Spanish-American war the Swedish-Americans again 
rushed to the colors. They served in the army and in the navy 
and were engaged in every battle. Among the men who volun- 
teered to sink the "Merrimac" in Santiago Harbor, were two 
Swedes. One of these, for "bravery and coolness in action" re- 
ceived a medal and a personal letter from President Roosevelt, 
couched in his usual vigorous language. Statistics of the number 
of Swedes who volunteered for service in the various branches 
of the army and navy are not available, but the total was large, 
and undoubtedly compared favorably with their records in 
other wars. 

The Swede is not easily influenced by propaganda. His na- 
ture is not subject to sudden impulses to the same extent as more 
nervous temperaments. This trait caused much misunderstand- 
ing during the early stages of the late war. In war, thinking is 
a crime and independence, a misdemeanor. You are supposed to 
follow and swallow undigested anything and everything the 
powers that be or the press gives you. But this is against th6 
nature of the Swede. He is apt to question the veracity of state- 
ments that appear exaggerated or invented. By this he does not 
mean to take sides; he is simply trying to get at the truth and 
arrive at a fair conclusion on the question in dispute. When 
reports of wholesale atrocities filled our press in the Fall of 
1914 and the following years, the Swedes were apt to keep their 
temper. They were well enough informed to know that in every 
war on record, since the time of ancient Greece and Rome, 
enemies have always accused each other of unbelievable and un- 
speakable atrocities, many of them true, but the majority in- 
vented or exaggerated. The Swedes did not lose their heads and 
fly off at a tangent in a fit of hysterics. Few of them said or 
did things they need to be ashamed of now, when, as Sir Phillip 
Gibbs has so well expressed it, "the truth can be told." But 
their position was misunderstood, and when they did not join 
in the silly and abject condemnation of the whole Hun nation 
with the same vociferous screams, as some of their neighbors, 
they were often accused of being pro-German. When America 
finally entered the war even the blindest and most unreasonable 
partisan could find no fault with the citizens of Swedish extrac- 
tion. They offered their services by the tens of thousands. In 
fact the largest percentage of volunteers from any one place in 
the forty-eight States of the Union came from Lindstrom, Min- 
nesota, where every inhabitant but two are Swedes or of Swed- 
ish parentage. It has also been said that Augustana College, the 
oldest Swedish-American educational institution in the country, 
furnished the largest number of volunteers, according to its en- 
rollment, of any college or university in the land. The number 

59 



of boys of Swedish birth or extraction in the army was estimated 
at 250,000, or about 12^/^ per cent, of the total Swedish-American 
population. On this basis, if all other nationalities, including 
the native-born, had contributed an equal share, our armies during 
the war would have totalled 18,700,000 men. 

Their bravery was universally acknowledged. Numerous in- 
stances of valor among all nationalities were recorded in the 
official dispatches, but I know no greater compliment to an of- 
ficer or service man than that paid to Captain Peterson in a 
personal cablegram from General Pershing to President Wilson 
in the Spring of 1918. 



COMMITTEES OF THE SWEDISH SECTION OF 
AMERICA'S MAKING. 

Executive and Finance Committee. 
Dr. Johannes Hoving, President. 
Dr. Victor O. Freeburg, Vice-President. 
Gustaf Sundelius, Corresponding Secretary. 
John H. Johnson, Recording Secretary. 
Emil F. Johnson, Treasurer. 
Axel Hedman. 
Dr. F. Jacobson. 
Charles K. Johansen. 
Ernest Ohnell. 

Study Committee. 

Dr. Victor O. Freeburg, Chairman. 
Erik W. Wallin, Secretary. 
Dr. Amandus Johnson. 
Emil F. Johnson. 
Dr. Henry G. Leach. 

Book Committee. 

Dr. F. Jacobson, Chairman. 

Dr. Victor O. Freeburg, Secretary. 

Dr. Amandus Johnson. 

Ernst Skarstedt. 

Vilhelm Berger. 

Publicity Committee. 

Charles K. Johansen, Chairman. 
Dr. Henry G. Leach. 
Charles Nieckels. 

Exhibition Committee. 

Axel Hedman, Chairman, 
Mrs. Ingeborg Hansell. 
John Olin. 

6o 



Program Committee. 

John H. Johnson, Chairman. 
Eric Hagstrom. 
Mrs. Helga Hoving. 
D. O. Host. 
Ragnar Ahlin. 

General Committee. 

Dr. Johannes Hoving, Chairman, Vasa Temple Association 
of New York. 

Dr. Victor O. Freeburg, Vice-Chairman, Swedish-x\merican 
Trade Journal. 

Gustaf Sundelius, Corresponding Secretary, Swedish-Amer- 
ican Chamber of Commerce of the S. S. A. 

John H. Johnson, Recording Secretary, United Swedish So- 
cieties of New York. 

John Olin, United Swedish Societies of New York. 

Emil F. Johnson, Treasurer, F. and A. Masonic Lodge "Bre- 
dablick." 

Henry Johnson, F. and A. Masonic Lodge "Bredablick." 

Axel Hedman, American Society of Swedish Engineers. 

Ernest Ohnell, American Society of Swedish Engineers. 

Erik W. Wallin, St. Erik, Society for Advancement of Swed- 
ish Music. 

Mrs. Helga Hoving, St. Erik, Society for Advancement of 
Swedish Music. 

Mrs. Alma Berghman, Vasa Temple Association of New 
York. 

Dr. Henry G. Leach, American Scandinavian Foundation. 

Dr. F. Jacobson, Augustana Synod of America. 

Dr. Mauritz Stolpe, Augustana Synod of America. 

Eric Hagstrom. Swedish-American Athletic Club of Brook- 
lyn. 

D. O. Host, Swedish Club of New York. 

E. A. Bilgert, Swedish Club of New York. 

J. Albert Ohman, Swedish Society of New York. 

Oscar Wijk, Swedish Glee Club of Brooklyn. 

Axel Wilson, Swedish Glee Club of Brooklyn. 

Charles A. Ogren, Kallman Orphanage, Brooklyn. 

Mrs. Nelly Johnson, Swedish Ladies' Society. 

Eric Johnson, Scandinavian Brotherhood of America, Lodge 

Oscar n. 
Ivar Carlson, Scandinavian Brotherhood of America, Lodge! 

Oscar n. 
August Johnson, Scandinavian Brotherhood of America, 

Lodge Kronan. 
Ragnar Ahlin, Swedish Folkdance Society of New York. 
Charles du Mar, Hundred Men's Society. 
Emil Blomquist, Swedish-Norwegian Society. 

6i 



G. A. Bihl, Swedish Singing Society Svea. 
Gust. A. Wester, Stockholm Club. 
Adam Lindberg, Stockholm Club. 

B. A. Lundstedt, Fylgia Society. 
Edwin Johnson, Society Aland. 
Albin Rothoff, Society du Nord. 
Carl J. Swenson, Society du Nord. 
Charles Paulson, Linnea Association. 

Mrs. Hilda Molander, Society Freja of Brooklyn. 
Mrs. Annie Johnson, Society Freja of Brooklyn. 
Frank Rasmussen, Tegner Club. 
Axel Swanson, Happy 13 Club. 
Charles S. Swanson, Happy 13 Club. 
John Troedson, Singing Society "Lyran." 
Ewald Thore, Singing Society "Lyran." 

C. A. Lind, Swedish Chauffeurs Club. 

Eugene de Brichy, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 33, 

Sture. 
E. U. T. Ericsson, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 33, 

Sture. 
Sven Johnson, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. Si, Thor. 
E. Kellman, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 34, Thor. 
Mrs. Jenny Gustafson, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 

35, Valkyrian. 
Evelyn Armstrong, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 

35, Valkyrian. 
Mrs. Augusta Petterson, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 

39, Thora. 
Ellen Johnson. Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 39, Thora. 
Mrs. Ida Anderson, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 51, 

Odin. 
Robert Olson, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 51, 

Odin. 
Axel Bjorkman, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 64, 

Nobel. 
Eric Dahlin, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 64, Nobel. 
John W. Lind, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 75, Kung 

Gosta. 
Emil O. Cederholm, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 75, 

Kung Gosta. 
Mrs. Alma Anderson, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 78, 

. Saga. 
Mrs. Erika Ralston, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 78, 

Saga. 
Albin O. Ahlgren, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 88, 

Try ggve. 
Ellen Youngstrom, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 89, 

Nordstjarnan. 



Carl W. Johnson, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No, 100, 

Freja. 
C. Olson, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 100, Freja. 
Mrs. Gertrude Lundqvist, Vasa Order of America, Lodge 

107, Liljan. 
Mrs. Hilma Staff, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 107, 

Liljan. 
August Anderson, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 121, 

Neptun. 
Aug. E. Johnson, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 121, 

Neptun. 
Oscar Petterson, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 122, 

Triumf. 
Oscar Rydstrom, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 194, 

Hoga Nord. 
Oscar Eneman, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 194, 

Hoga Nord. 
Axel Nelson, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 216, 

Pioneer. 
W. R. Turnqvist, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 216, 

Pioneer. 
Axel Magnusson, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 235, 

Olympic. 
Oscar Svenson, Vasa Order of America Lodge No. 275, 

Bjorn. 
Thore Ladine, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 275, Bjorn. 
Mrs. Hilma Sandstrom, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 

235, Olympic. 
Albert Rylander, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 304, 

Gustav n Adolf. 
Ernst Carlson, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 304, 

Gustav n Adolf. 
Eric Gordonville, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 306, 

Syskonkedjan. 
Mrs. Eric Gordonville, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 

306, Syskonkedjan. 
Emil Anderson, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 338, 

St. Erik. 
Torsten Bruhn, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 338, 

St. Erik. 
Charles P. Nelson, Vasa Order of x\merica, Lodge No. 340, 

Svea. 
O. H. Lanquist, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 360, 

Baltic. 
Oscar Bard, Vasa Order of America, Lodge No. 360, 

Baltic. 

Honorary and Advisory Committee. 

John Aspegren, New York. 

H. Bjornstrom-Steffanson, New York. 

63; 



Karl von Rydingsvard, New York. 
Hon. Samuel Carlson, Jamestown, N. Y. 
Charles L. Eckman, Jamestown, N. Y, 
J. E. Hillberg, Jamestown, N. Y. 
A. A. Anderson, Jamestown, N. Y. 
John Soderstrom, Buffalo, N. Y. 
Ernst J. Berg, Schenectady, N. Y. 
Dr. Adolph Burnett Benson, New Haven, Conn. 
Richard Hogner, M. D., Boston, Mass. 
Olof Ohlson, Waltham, Mass. 
Frank Mossberg, Attleboro, Mass, 
Anton H. Trulson, Worcester, Mass. 
Anders Schon, Worcester, Mass. 
Hon. Adolph O. Eberhart, Chicago, 111. 
C. G. Wallenius, Chicago, 111. 
Nels Hokanson, Chicago, 111. 
Othelia Myhrman, Chicago, 111. 
Andrew Tofft, Chicago, 111. 
Ernest W. Olson, Rock Island, 111. 
Col. J. A. Ockerson, St. Louis, Mo. 
Hon. John Lind, Minneapolis, Minn. 
Dr. Victor Nilsson, Minneapolis, Minn. 
Prof. A. A. Stomberg, Minneapolis, Minn. 
Alfred Soderstrom, Minneapolis, Minn. 
C. J. Larson, St. Paul, Minn. 
G. N. Swan, Sioux City, Iowa. 
Alex. Olsson, San Francisco, Calif. 
Dr. W. W. Keen, Philadelphia, Pa. 

Dr. Gregory B. Keen, Swedish Colonial Society, Philadel- 
phia, Pa. 
Henry D. Paxson, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Prof. A. D. Yocum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. 



64 



^RARY OF CONGRESS 



011 641 443 ^ 



